At 5G Summit, Intel stakes claim as enabler for Nokia, Ericsson, and media

Ahead of this week’s Mobile Worlds Congress Americas, Intel today held a 5G Summit to discuss its plans for the next-generation wireless technology — a message focused almost exclusively on its role as an enabling partner for networking hardware and media organizations, rather than on consumer devices. But the event ended with an unexpected tease of a new HTC VR headset featuring Intel 5G technology.

The summit’s “5G progress report” was led by Intel’s network platforms SVP Sandra Rivera, who explained that “5G is not just a new wireless access technology” and is more complex than might initially be appreciated. While 3G was about apps and 4G was about speed, she said, “5G is so much more than that … The fundamental disruption that 5G will bring will be to move the compute [capabilities] much closer to the source of data creation and consumption.”