LTE  |  2020-03-02

Global Certification Forum Announces Record Number of Manufacturers Certifying Products in 2019

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

TCCA is looking forward to a close cooperation with the Global Certification Forum in developing the new and definitive mission critical certification programme.

The Global Certification Forum (GCF) has today announced the analysis of its 2019 wireless device certification data, which shows significant increase in 5G technology certifications and a record number of companies working within the GCF ecosystem, to ensure successful deployment of new and disruptive technologies. In its annual whitepaper published today, GCF provides insights into the mobile technologies and functionalities being requested by operators and end-users across markets worldwide.

Highlights from the data include:

  • A total of 629 devices from 70 manufacturers were certified in 2019
  • The integration of 5G is happening quickly, with a greater share of devices being certified in the first year of 5G compared to 4G in its first year
  • Increasing complexity of devices, with an average 5G device supporting 1.6 bands and 34.9 inter-band configurations
  • LTE continues to be the most widely adopted wireless communications standard with 88% of all devices certified supporting it
    2019 saw a significant increase in the number of devices incorporating a cellular IoT standard

The GCF is a globally recognised quality mark for interoperability in the mobile and IoT industry. The organisation collaborates with other dynamic leaders in standards and delivers a range of certification options from 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, IoT, oneM2M, Module, C-IoT chipset, C-V2X, eSIM (RSP), industry 4.0 and MCPTT services.

“There is much anticipation amongst the industry for the publication of our analysis every year,” said Lars Nielsen, CEO and General Manager at GCF. “With these deep insights into the market trends we can see the growing importance and realisation of manufacturers and operators to ensure that devices interoperate correctly with networks to meet the performance expectations of end-users, particularly for new technologies and applications.”

The data has been announced in the 2019 white paper - available to download for free here.

GCF was founded in 1999 and is currently celebrating 20 years of progressive certification initiatives and collaboration with leading industry standards bodies. 

“ETSI congratulates the Global Certification Forum for twenty years well spent, striving and succeeding in certifying interoperability between mobile devices and networks.

Its role in connecting experts from operators, manufacturers and the broader test industry - to prioritise testing of new features - has been in perfect synchronisation with the availability of standards. The guidance given by the GCF, to both 3GPP and ETSI, ensures that testing has happened at the optimum moment for the industry. It has created the benchmark of certification for the mobile industry.” - Luis Jorge Romero, ETSI Director General, 3GPP Project Coordination Group Chair

“All of us at the NGMN Alliance congratulate our colleagues and friends at GCF for twenty years of successfully providing a common means for documenting and assessing compliance with requirements, avoiding multiple testing and delivering cost efficiency. It has been a great pleasure to work with GCF since as early as 2006 and we are sure that this successful cooperation will continue beyond 5G and the “generations” to come.” - Dr. Peter Meissner, CEO and Member of the Board, NGMN Alliance

“We have great respect for the achievements of GCF in the consumer mobile world over the past twenty years and look forward to a close cooperation in developing the new and definitive mission critical certification programme, based on our complementary expertise in user expectations.” – Tony Gray, TCCA Chief Executive