The necessity for 5G remains strong due to various reasons that we will explained shortly.

The limitations of LTE have become apparent due to its original design from a decade ago, which cannot easily adapt to new technologies or be maintained compatible with older equipment.

For example, in the first LTE release, the system used common reference signals (CRS) up to four ports, which were continuously active. However, the system lacked the ability to deactivate these signals or adjust their scale with more transmitter antennas without causing issues for existing devices. While CRS worked well initially, they were not scalable for future advancements like increasing the number of ports and antennas.

Another reason for the push towards 5G is that many new deployments are in the mid-band spectrum of 3.5/4.5 GHz and high-frequency bands of 28/39 GHz, which LTE networks have not fully utilised which have highlighted the need to utilise spectrum bands that have not been used for cellular technology before.