WCA May 2017

44 / 64

42 Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2017
Telecomnews
“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
(27th 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 27th February-2nd 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,” 2nd 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
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.
BigStockPhoto.com • Photographer: Krishnacreations