The call was made by the Guangdong branch of China Unicom and ZTE on ZTE's 5G prototype smartphone.

This year will see the commercialisation of 5G, with telecoms services planned in the US, South Korea, Japan and China, among others.

GSMA Intelligence, the research and consulting arm of the GSMA, has published the initial results of its latest Consumer Survey, providing a wealth of insight on consumer technology adoption trends set to shape the industry over the coming years.

Experts highlight what they believe will be the top technology trends for next year.

5G mobile subscriptions will peak to reach 1.5 billion by 2024, surpassing 4G technology adoption, says Ericsson.

The British telecoms group is reportedly moving to keep the Chinese company's equipment at the edge of telecoms infrastructure.

The chip supplier has unveiled Snapdragon 855, expected to be released in the US in the first half of 2019.

Verizon and Samsung will seek to steal a march on Apple by launching US 5G smartphones in the first half of 2019.

Cisco predicts more IP traffic in the next five years than in the history of the Internet.

The company completed a 5G call, Internet and WeChat connection, using the 3GPP R15 global standard.

Ovum believes data connectivity is the most significant growth prospect for Africa's service providers.

To attract investment in Africa, regulators need to make spectrum available soon for 5G services, says a new report.