The 3GPP delayed the final version of its Release-17 standards until 2022, as the impact of remote working during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic took its toll on the abilities of its working groups.

In a statement, the organisation said it expected the new release’s protocols to be frozen in March 2022 with the coding freeze in June of the same year. On finalising details of Rel-16 earlier this year, it shifted Rel-17 to December 2021, but at the time noted there could be further delays.

It added as remote working for its members was expected to continue until at least June 2021, delegates would require more time to allow them to “comfortably and accurately consolidate the results of their work”.

In the busiest working groups, it noted the stream of messages from contributors could reach more than 1,000 emails per day.

“The new commitment will greatly help companies advance their plans for network rollout and new product development. The Rel-17 schedule will now allow 3GPP the time it needs to complete the maintenance of Rel-16 specifications as they become very stable. At the same time, it allows the groups to switch priority to some exciting Rel-17 features.”

Its next release is set to include enhancements on IoT protocols; support for 5G over non-terrestrial networks; multicast and broadcast protocols; MIMO; integrated access and backhaul; RAN slicing; sidelink; multi-RAT dual-connectivity; and support for multi-SIM devices.