Ericsson, Intel Launch Initiative Focusing on Industrial IoT

Ericsson and Intel said they're launching 5G Innovators Initiative (5GI2), “an open industry initiative designed to explore, test and innovate with 5G network and distributed edge technologies.” The group will focus on the industrial IoT, or IIoT, said Aicha Evans, general manager of the Intel Communication and Devices Group, in a Tuesday blog post. “The 5GI2 will join major equipment manufacturers, leading technology companies, industry leaders and top universities to accelerate the adoption of 5G wireless and infrastructure innovation in the U.S.” Initial members also include General Electric, Honeywell and the University of California, Berkeley. Evans said Intel will have multiple announcements next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. At last year’s MWC, “we revealed our plans for 5G products and trial acceleration, rolling out our first-generation mobile trial platform that immediately offered the industry a development platform for fast prototyping, integration and testing,” she said. “Steady progress has followed. Throughout 2016, we entered into several 5G trials around the globe with tier-one service providers.” At CES in January, Intel released a 5G modem, “the world’s first global 5G modem that supports both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands and transforms connectivity for a variety of use cases,” Evans said. 5G is already here, Evans said: "The big difference with 5G is that when you start to talk about ‘autonomy’ and factories, cars and hospitals thinking for themselves, they will rely on split-second connectivity to do so -- with no room for error.”