The Global Certification Forum (GCF) today announced that it is adding support for 5G NR Reduced Capability (also known as 5G NR-Light or 5G RedCap) to its device certification programme.

There is an increasing demand in markets including industrial and consumer for 5G devices with low power consumption and lower cost. In recognition of this, 3GPP Release 17 introduced 5G RedCap, which opens up the advanced features and spectral efficiency of 5G NR to devices that do not require the standard’s full high data rate capabilities. Potential applications include industrial sensors, surveillance and wearables.

5G RedCap certification is expected to be live by mid-2023, complementing 5G NR areas that are already active within GCF certification.

By combining conformance and interoperability tests undertaken in laboratories with field trials on multiple commercial networks, GCF certification verifies the quality of the interoperability of wireless devices with different network elements, vendors’ infrastructure, and other services. GCF certifies hundreds of different device models each year.

GCF is present at MWC Barcelona 2023 and meetings can be arranged here.