WCA May 2017

Telecom news

Next-generation mobile networks are seen as advancing mobile to a unified fabric connecting people to everything London-based IHS Markit Ltd views 5G as a catalyst that will thrust mobile technology into the elite class of general-purpose technologies (GPTs) that includes the printing press, electricity, the steam engine, the telegraph and the Internet. An IHS white paper evaluates the potential of 21 unique 5G-use cases that will affect productivity and enhance economic activity across a broad range of industry sectors. “The 5G Economy: How 5G Technology Will Contribute to the Global Economy” also examines the central role the 5G value chain will play in continually strengthening and expanding current mobile technology platforms and the contribution that 5G will make to positive, sustainable global economic growth. Key findings include: Ø The 5G value chain will invest an average of $200 billion annually to continually expand and strengthen the 5G technology base within networks and business application infrastructure; Ø 5G deployment will fuel sustainable long-term growth to global real gross domestic product (GDP). From 2020 to 2035, the total contribution of 5G to real global GDP will be equivalent to an economy the size of India – currently the seventh-largest economy in the world. Ø In 2035, 5G will enable $12.3 trillion of global economic output. That is nearly equivalent to USA consumer spending in 2016; and more than the combined spending, that year, by consumers in China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France; Ø The global 5G value chain will generate $3.5 trillion in output and support 22 million jobs in 2035. This figure is larger than the value of today’s entire mobile value chain.

“It’s time again for carriers and vendors to serve up bold claims about what 5G cellular will do for users,” wrote Stephen Lawson of NetworksAsia , acknowledging a certain thematic sameness that has crept into Mobile World Congress. But he also noted something new about the 2017 edition of the big annual event: a dash of realism. “5G is not ready yet,” T-Mobile USA’s CTO Neville Ray conceded (27 th February). “It’s maturing quickly, but it’s not real today.” Like most other carriers, T-Mobile is testing pre-standard 5G technology, and NetworksAsia was able to report that Mr Ray is enthusiastic about fifth-generation wireless systems in the long term. But the T-Mobile official reminded his audience in Barcelona, Spain, that some aspects of 5G – like using ultra-high frequencies to reach mobile devices – still face big technical challenges, and that 4G will be around for years after the first important 5G rollouts circa 2020. Mr Lawson noted that, in “a shift from flashy promises of mobile broadband speeds a year ago,” enterprise uses were the focus for many of those attending this year’s show, held 27 th February-2 nd March. The key enterprise benefits worth exploring, vendors told him, are high reliability, low latency, and longer Internet of Things (IoT) battery life through more efficient networks. (“Networking Enterprises Enter the 5G Spotlight at MWC,” 2 nd March) Among Mr Lawson’s other takeaways from Mobile World Congress 2017: Ø New partnerships and trials showed the major mobile players stepping up their efforts to develop the technologies behind 5G and get a standard finished faster. Intel, Qualcomm, Ericsson and several other vendors and carriers said they would create an early version of the 5G NR (New Radio) specification that, using elements of LTE, will allow for 5G-like network deployments as early as 2019; Ø In a keynote address, the CEO of South Korean operator KT said that his company would launch the world’s first commercial 5G service in 2019 after carrying out trials at next year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang; Ø Verizon announced that Cisco Systems will help it roll out 5G trial services at several hundred cell sites and several thousand customer locations in the USA. The Cisco contribution will include backhaul equipment, a virtualised packet core, and virtual managed services software; Ø Ericsson announced yet more 5G trials – for a total of more than 30 – with NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone and Telstra. Nokia highlighted the trials it is conducting with carriers, including the Verizon project. Huawei announced a virtualised 5G core for distributed networks. “Device hardware makers are getting into the game, too,” Mr Lawson reported from Barcelona. Intel announced the readiness of its first 5G-modem silicon using a 14nm process. And Qualcomm announced the expansion of its Snapdragon X50 5G modem line, to work on frequencies both below 6GHz and in the much higher millimetre-wave bands where much of 5G will happen. At Mobile World Congress 2017, a new pragmatism about 5G timing and speeds but no scarcity of new partnerships and trials

BigStockPhoto.com • Photographer: Krishnacreations

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2017

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