https://www.cnet.com/news/5g-network-wireless-phones-qualcomm-2019-are-coming-earlier-than-you-thought/#ftag=CAD590a51e

5G New Radio (5G NR), a flavor of the next-generation wireless network that's expected to be the global standard, should be available for large-scale deployments in 2019, a year earlier than anticipated, nearly two dozen companies said Sunday.

The companies who've vowed to reach a standard for 5G for that timeframe included a mix of wireless carriers, chip providers and handset makers -- such as Qualcomm, Intel, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom -- that are part of the 3GPP standards group.

"For consumers, this means they're going to get an elevated broadband experience in 2019," Rasmus Hellberg, senior director of technical marketing at Qualcomm, told CNET in an interview ahead of the news, which was announced at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona, Spain.