WCA March 2019

Telecom news

Deloitte’s predictions for 2019 project a year in which fifth-generation (5G) wide-area wireless networks arrive ‘in scale’ Deloitte is a brand of the UK private company DTTL under which independent firms worldwide provide risk and financial advisory services to clients. The 18 th edition of Deloitte’s annual Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions , drawing upon broad-based input from member-firms, was published in December. Following here are highlights, lightly edited, from the section “5G: The New Network Arrives,” by Duncan Stewart and Paul Lee: Ø Ø There were 72 operators testing 5G in 2018. By the end of 2019, we expect 25 operators to have launched 5G service in at least part of their territories (usually cities), with another 26 operators to launch in 2020, more than doubling the total. Further, we expect about 20 handset vendors to launch 5G-ready handsets in 2019, with the first available in the second quarter, and about a million 5G handsets (out of a projected 1.5 billion smartphone handsets sold) to be shipped by year’s end. One million 5G modems (“pucks” or “hotspots”) will be sold, and around a million 5G fixed wireless access devices will be installed. By the end of 2020, we expect that 5G handset sales (15 to 20 million units) will represent approximately one per cent of all smartphone sales. Those sales will take off in 2021, the first year in which retailers will sell more than 100 million 5G handsets. Ø Ø The most noticeable benefits of these first 5G networks for users will be faster speeds than today’s 4G technology: peak speeds of gigabits per second (Gbps), and sustainable speeds estimated to be in the hundreds of megabits per second (Mbps). Ø Ø In 2019 and 2020, 5G wireless technology will have three major applications.

In “Top Smart City Predictions for 2019” (19 th December), Teena Maddox of TechRepublic asserted that, as the world becomes more urban – with 60 per cent of the population expected to live in cities by 2050 – smart cities “are more than a trend – they’re the wave of the future.” According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), smart city technology spending is expected to grow to $135 billion by 2021. Cities are digitally transforming to improve environmental, financial and social aspects of urban life. To find out what lies ahead for smart city technology, TechRepublic , an online magazine for information technology (IT) professionals, gathered 11 experts for a round-table discussion. Here are three questions put by TechRepublic and the most pertinent answer to each: Ø Ø What are some of the key trends that you think will develop in smart cities in 2019? Glenn Lurie, president and CEO, Synchronoss (Bridgewater, New Jersey) : “We’re going to see a smart city breakthrough in 2019 which will bring with it a wave of services from the connected car to the smart building to the smart home. But these smart applications do not have interoperability, therefore are essentially disconnected from one another, which is a massive missed opportunity for consumers. Although a single platform that would allow for the management of a single connected life experience is not a reality today, and may not be for some time, the smart city will emerge as the umbrella with successful use cases – including smart buildings, connected cars, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-in- frastructure, and smart grids – that demonstrate problem-solving and move us closer to a truly connected life. Carriers will also move forward to find ways to set up and sell new services, and drive incremental revenue quickly to capitalise on this.” Ø Ø Which technologies do you predict more smart cities will adopt in 2019? Charlene Marini, vice president of strategy, IoT services group, Arm (Astoria, New York) : “Expect prime movers for smart cities to mature beyond just cost reduction (eg LED lights or better waste management) to better citizen engagement and more revenue streams, such as red light violations detection, Wi-Fi hotspots, 5G services, smart towers, crime detection/ analysis, and information broadcasting, (all) with the help of advanced technologies like computer vision and machine learning.” Ø Ø Which technologies will we see becoming more mainstream in smart cities in 2019, and why? Eddie Garcia, director of worldwide sales and marketing, Milandr Inc (Highlands Ranch, Colorado) : “Cities will demand that smart city and IoT networking platforms be open-source and cloud-based, with the ability to integrate with various billing and city management systems. Open-source platforms will allow choices among which sensors and devices best fit individual needs instead of their being siloed to a single vendor. Cities want both to be smart and to save money. Thus, multi-function LoRa/LPWAN sensors for motion, light, temperature, humidity, etc, will increase in adoption due to ease-of-use, long battery life (up to ten years in some cases), and low cost. As more US states legalise marijuana, the market for smart energy solutions, like smart electric meters and lighting, will continue to grow. Given the recent increase in mass shootings, public safety/ security applications will gain momentum. Cities like Colorado Springs have begun to implement gunshot and other catastrophic event detection sensors to receive information in real time and improve response times. “Transportation solutions like smart parking sensors will continue to grow as more cities limit the use of gas-powered vehicles and encourage bike/ scooter sharing.” What progress toward ‘smart cities’ can be expected this year?

Illustrations: BigStockPhoto.com • Artist: Asmati

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Wire & Cable ASIA –March/April 2019

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