The sixth annual Brooklyn 5G Summit at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering comes at a linchpin moment: The deployment of 5G networks is set to more than triple this year with analysts predicting no fewer than 42 launches, which would result in a total of 55 live 5G networks in service by the end of 2019.

At the summit, co-hosted by NYU WIRELESS and Nokia, and taking place from April 23-26, leaders from companies including Nokia, Sprint, AT&T and Ericsson, and from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will delve into this year’s aggressive rollout of 5G networks. In panels and keynote speeches, participants will detail the latest research, explore groundbreaking new technologies and use cases, and look ahead to 6G, expedited by the FCC’s recent decision to throw open the doors to the sub-terahertz spectrum for experimentation.

Under the leadership of Founding Director Theodore S. Rappaport, NYU WIRELESS led pioneering research proving the capabilities of mmWave spectrum radio across a range of scenarios and use cases. Now the center is beginning a new, ambitious project that lays the groundwork for 6G. The NYU WIRELESS research is funded in part by Keysight Technologies with the largest in-kind donation in NYU Tandon’s history, to explore wireless applications exploiting the sub-THz spectrum beginning at 95 GHz. Last month, Rappaport addressed the FCC Open Commission Meeting as commissioners considered making available 21.2 GHz of spectrum above 95 GHz for unlicensed operations and creating a new class of experimental licenses for the 95 GHz to 3 THz spectrum range.

“Continued advances in science, technology, and engineering depend on moving fast to explore the unrealized potential of underutilized radio spectrum,” said Rappaport. “At the Brooklyn 5G Summit, we are looking at not only the amazing developments happening on the ground as we roll out the next generation of wireless, but also some of the really astonishing possibilities engendered by the sub-THz range of the electromagnetic spectrum.”

Besides posters and demonstrations of cutting-edge technology from Nokia, NYU WIRELESS, and many others, this year’s Brooklyn 5G Summit will include presentations by industry leaders including:

• Andre Fuetsch, CTO of AT&T and president of AT&T Labs
• Michael O’Rielly, commissioner of the FCC
• Ted Rappaport, David Lee/Ernst Weber professor of electrical and computer engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering and founding director of NYU WIRELESS
• John Saw, CTO of Sprint
• Bill Stone, vice president of Verizon
• Mikael Höök, research area director for radio-research at Ericsson Research
• John E. Smee, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm Technologies