5G Top Companies

The World Economic Forum describes 5G as the Fourth Industria Revolution. Qualcomm claims that 5G will be bigger than electricity and their prediction says by 2035, it will be worth $13 trillion of the goods and services industry. 5G is going to generate billions of dollars through unrealized revenue streams. All the telecom giants are motivated to get a hold of the upcoming wave. A lot of public/private partnerships of which we covered the major ones have already been witnessed and a lot more are yet to come.

5G is already available in more than 30 countries. Many others are actively preparing for launch: releasing and allocating frequencies for a new type of communication, expanding coverage. Ukraine is also preparing to deploy its 5G network. The Ministry of Digital Transformation predicts that the realistic deadline for launching the technology is 2022.5G has the potential to democratize computing by helping to bridge the digital divide. Public-private partnerships are essential for success and broad-based achievement.

China announced despite the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 700,000 5G base stations were built in 2020, adding to the 100,000 base stations built in 2019. This means that China as one country has more base stations than all other nations on the planet. Chinese operators are aiming to build between 600,000 and 1 million stations in 2021. It means that the total number of base stations could exceed 1.7 million by the end of the year. As for the number of end devices connected to the Chinese 5G network, this figure exceeded the mark of 180 million. China is not only a leader in terms of base stations. According to the Wall Street Journal, China has more 5G subscribers than the United States per capita. There are also more 5G smartphones on sale, more widespread 5G coverage, and faster download connections.

So what are the leading 5G companies?

#Samsung

Samsung started researching 5G technology in 2011. In 2013, Samsung had successfully developed the world’s first adaptive array transceiver technology operating in the millimeter-wave Ka bands for cellular communications. The new technology sits at the core of the 5G mobile communications system and provides data transmission several hundred times faster than the current 4G networks. The company has achieved a lot in the next generation of technology and can now be considered as one of the leaders in the 5G domain. Here is the journey of Samsung’s achievements in 5G technology along with the collaborations it has made to be the top 5G player. As per Iplytic, Samsung is leading in the race for most declared 5G granted patent families. Further, Samsung holds the second position in Core 5G SEPs count, as per GreyB 5G SEP Report. Out of 1353 declared patent families. Samsung has 256 Core 5G SEP in its portfolio. But the share of 5G declared patents are just 25% out of 1353 families.

#LG

LG has been one of the top 5G players in terms of research activities, products, and even patent analytics. In 2019, Bloomberg cited the 5G era as the era of LG as the company managed to ship more than 100K 5G smartphones in the Korean market. The Korean company has been researching 5G for quite some time and built a reputation by getting published in many 5G related reports. LG has been a few companies, like Samsung and Huawei, that does not just deploy 5G networks but also build products too which utilize the 5G networks. LG has declared 1388 patent families to ETSI. And by further research, it’s been found that out of 1388 patent families, 62% of patent families were declared for 5G. Only 228 patent families believe to be Core SEPs, says GreyB’s 5G SEP Report. 

#Nokia

Nokia has also joined the race of 5G as the company is developing, researching, and partnering with other entities to render 5G communication as fast as possible. The company uses an 8000-hectare site to carry out key 5G tests collaborating with Deutsche Telekom and Hamburg Port Authority for their project 5G MoNArch. The project’s main goal is to gain knowledge and experience from 5G networks in the real-world environment. Its industrial uses could be traffic light management, data processing from mobile sensors, and VR applications. Nokia, on the other hand, also implemented Future X network architecture for 5G to deliver robust network coverage and reduce costs. Nokia can be found in many 5G patent reports as the company patent portfolio holds a good amount of standard patents. In Mar 2020, Nokia announced over 3000 patent families declared to ETSI. As of now, the number has grown to 3500 patent families. 

#ZTE Corporation

Regarded as one of the leaders in the 4G LTE, the Chinese telecom equipment company also maintains its position in 5G research and tests. 4G network was confronted by various bottlenecks in the Internet of things because of its performance and capabilities. At that time, ZTE was the first company to propose its Pre5G concept and series solution. 

#Huawei

Huawei has been pouring money into research on 5G wireless networks and patenting key technologies. The company has hired many experts from abroad as well to decide the technical standards for the next-generation wireless communication technology. Both Iplytics and GreyB’s 5G Reports shows that Huawei is leading with the most declared 5G patents. 

#Ericsson

Ericsson claims to be the only vendor that is currently working on all continents to make 5G a global standard for the next generation of wireless technology. The patent application, which combines the work of 130 Ericsson inventors, is the largest in cellular communications in terms of the number of inventors, anywhere in the world. It shows the industry how Ericsson has approached 5G standardization with a comprehensive view that connects individual inventions in a complete 5G telecommunications network, rather than focusing on smaller individual inventions. Moreover, as per Bird & Bird analysis, Ericsson is leading with most standard patents with a share of 15.8% of all 5G standard patents. 

#Qualcomm

Qualcomm, one of the leading 5g chip makers, is also leading in the overall 5G spectrum. While other companies are talking about 5G, Qualcomm is actually building the technologies. Unlike telecom companies, Qualcomm focuses more on building products. From the US, Qualcomm is the only leading company with 5G standard patents. Qualcomm’s patent portfolio is, however, well-recognized by the industry players as top companies like LG also sort to take a patent license from them for cellular technologies. As per GreyB’s report, Qualcomm had declared 1042 patent families to ETSI, out of which 61% of patent families declared for 5G. From 1042 patent families, only 191 patent families believed to be Core SEPs by the analysts. 

#Orange

The French mobile network operator is also participating in the build-out of a more connected planet as the company is exploring three complementary areas:

Improved mobile broadband up to 10 times faster than 4G.  

High-performance fixed Internet access to complete the fiber network where it’s not available.

New applications to support digital transformation across business sectors.

#Cisco Systems

The US networking hardware company launched 5G now portfolio in MWC 2018 to support 5G automation and infrastructure. The company knows the potential of 5G and plans to connect more than 30 billion devices in the next three years. Network hardening is a key part of 5G and Cisco can’t afford to miss any chance. To join the 5G wagon, Cisco also took steps by joining a network of partners to provide 5G for rural communities in the UK. Here are some of the developments made by the company on its 5G journey. 

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