Advancement in 5G

The Advancements of an Upcoming Technology - "5G."

The International Telecommunications Union or ITU the Geneva-based a United Nations body that governs issues concerning information and telecommunication technologies has said: 2020 will be the target year for completing the international standardisation of 5G technologies. It will pave the way for its mass adoption of next-generation 5G services promised to deliver not just faster phones and video but also connected cars and Internet-connected industrial senses over the next decade.

5G offers massive potential for both industry and the consumers with the prospect of being considerably faster than any of the existing technologies. 5G holds the promise of application with the socio-economic value, leading to a "hyper-connected society" in which smartphones will play an ever critical role in every individual's life. 

Key Highlights:

1. 5G communications network will enhance the performance of Autonomous Vehicles, Internet of Things (IoT), and other technological advancements by 2020. The race has begun between the US, China, South Korea and Europe to develop, test and deploy the technology that will drive the world's biggest economy in the decade to come. 

2. "China and other countries may be creating a 5G tsunami." Analysts from Deloitte have determined it would be ‘near impossible’ for the US to catch up with China in 5G due to a significant investment gap. Deloitte concluded that China outspent the United States by $24 billion since 2015 and has over ten times more sites ready to support 5G. Furthermore, in the first three months of 2017 alone, China added more 5G sites than the US in the last three years. The country's participation covers aspects ranging from international standard setting to system development and trials as well as the nurturing of a global ecosystem for the industry.

Some analysts believe Chinese 5G technology is at least a year ahead of its Western counterparts. Huawei, for example, is often noted for its expertise in Massive-MIMO. China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom will together deploy vast numbers of base stations during the first months of 2019 — the first year of deployment. This massive ramp-up in 5G deployment is being coined the ‘China Surge’ by Mobile Experts and is expected to be the largest 5G market by 2025 according to a joint report by the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) intelligence - the Global mobile think tank and China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. 

3. South Korea made debut in pioneering its first intercontinental 5G trial at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The 5G champion project shows off a 5G link between South Korea and Finland. The 5G enabled the use of driverless shuttle buses and to allow ultra-high resolution 360-degree video to be beamed wirelessly around the Olympic venues. However, the mobile phones don't yet offer the 5G compatibility. Hence, it went almost unnoticed by those at the games. 

Intel announced to unveil its collaboration with NTT DOCOMO, a National Partner of Tokyo 2020, to provide 5G technologies supporting network infrastructure, connectivity and collaboration on new experiences for the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. It has committed to deliver - 

a) High-Resolution Video Streaming: 360 degree 8K video streams that can showcase real-time action across high-resolution devices at the Olympic venue. True VR from individual's headset, tv or wireless device and capable of delivering vast amounts of data at multi-gigabit speeds.

b.) Smart City Sensors and Connected Cars: The physical movement of the audience could be transformed with the enhanced intelligence in the devices, smartphones, and at the edge as the 5G network will address the unique data-intensive workloads such as pervasive facial recognition which will be used for everything right from access to stadium to reduction of threats. Intel and other Olympic partners may offer the latest iteration of 5G communications for vehicles, which has already achieved data speeds of up to 1 Gbps for 4K-resolution video communications with a vehicle travelling at 30 km/h.

c.) Players: All the participants will gain a new capability from 5G as they train and compete. Access to data analytics of their performance and training will guide them take corrective measures of their training programs. Smart e-health equipments, wearables, and VR/AR simulations are all optimised on a 5G network could leverage AI to help competitors step up their game plan. The players can become champions by continually developing, enhancing, and learning new skills to compete effectively. 

Intel shared its 5G Smart Stadium collaboration with Tencent, China Unicom, and Nokia. Imagine the people being able to virtually attend the Super Bowl and enjoy some of the same experiences of fans at the actual stadium. Conversely, imagine attending an event where you receive VIP access with private camera feeds.

4. Moscow is building new civic services on 5G. As the top teams compete to become the World Cup 2018 champion. There is yet another spectacle on display at the tournament in Russia. Emerging technologies 5G and AI wave. When the national football teams of Morocco and Iran take the field at Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg during the 2018 FIFA World Cup on 15 June, more than 60,000 fans were there to cheer them. And, courtesy of more than a dozen specially installed high-definition cameras, the residents of Moscow, about 600 km away, were able to watch the game over a high-speed 5G connection. The capital of Russia had what Evgeniy Novikov, an advisor for the Deputy Minister of the IT Department of Moscow, calls a “5G zone,” an area where viewers can don VR glasses and switch between camera views to watch the game in real time.

5. Blockchain platform VeChain has been chosen to be among the first set of partners for NTT Docomo’s 5G Open Partner Program. NTT Docomo is Japan’s largest telecoms company with over 76 million subscribers. The firm’s recent launch of the 5G Open Partner Program aims towards fostering the industrial use of the latest generation of mobile networks by 2020. Blockchain technology is set to have an impact on many industries. VeChain started by focusing on a sector that’s a niche for innovation, the supply chain. VeChain’s technology can securely track and verify products. The problem of counterfeit goods in Asia is not only detrimental to the profits of legitimate businesses, but they can also be deadly.

VeChain said in a PR, "It is our goal is to enhance and enrich our current data services capacity within traceability, supply chain management, and smartphones for our users. With our ongoing effort to bring traceability use cases in Japan into our ecosystem, the 5G program will bring additional value to VeChain’s presence in the region.” VeChain has since expanded its operation from the supply chain to launching its own blockchain platform called Thor. VeChain said, "With the enterprise-level platform it aims to connect blockchain technology to the real world by providing a comprehensive governance structure, a robust economic model, advanced IoT integration, and to pioneer real-world applications."

6. Qualcomm announced its first 5G compatible smartphones are now a step closer after it has made the world’s first Millimetre Wave antennas and sub-6Ghz RF modules now available to device manufacturers. 5G networks will use a mixture of the spectrum, including the long-range, low-level 700MHz band, the mid-range 3.4GHz band, and high range Millimetre Wave (MMWave) spectrum that had previously been considered too challenging for mobile communications. MMWave frequencies offer significant capacity, but low range, making them ideal for use in urban areas. The first commercial 5G services will go live later this year. It will use the Millimetre Wave spectrum to power Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband.

7. Ericsson has pledged to boost its US investment to support the acceleration of 5G network deployments across the country. Investments from Ericsson will fall into two categories: 1) Increase research and development work done close to customers in the US, and 2) Increase flexibility to shorten the timeline for new product introduction and product delivery to customers. B?rje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson, says: “The United States is our largest market, accounting for a quarter of Ericsson’s business over the last seven years. To serve the demand of these fast-moving service providers, we are strengthening our investment in the US to be even closer to our customers and meet their accelerated 5G deployment plans.”

8. India demonstrated using Ericsson`s 5G test bed, and 5G New Radio (NR) delivered throughput of 5.7 Gbps and ultra-low latency of 3 milliseconds. The demonstration using Ericsson`s 5G test bed and 5G New Radio (NR) delivered a performance of 5.7 Gbps and ultra-low latency of 3 milliseconds. According to a latest Ericsson study, 5G technology will enable a $27.3 billion revenue potential for the Indian telecom operators by 2026. The most significant 5G opportunity will be seen in sectors like manufacturing, energy and utilities followed by public safety and health sectors. The retail industry in India will offer potential 5G-enabled revenue of up to $1.15 billion by 2026. 

Apart from that, the state-owned telecom firm BSNL expects to start 5G service trials by the end of 2018. The chairman and MD Anupam Shrivastava said, "We had interaction with Nokia on 5G. Next, we are going to present about our requirements after which field trail concept will be rolled-out. It should start before the end of 2018." The state-run firm has also started the discussion with Larsen & Toubro and HP for end devices that will be required for 5G services. He also mentioned the signing of its knowledge sharing agreement on 5G technology with network firm Coriant

9. The leaders of the five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden aim to be the first interconnected 5G region in the world. They have signed a letter of intent to accelerate the development of fifth-generation mobile systems “5G." The move aims to support these countries efforts to be among the world front-runners in the roll-out of 5G wireless services. The announcement was made at an annual summit of the regional leaders that was hosted by Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven. The agreement involves the backing of the governments and many of the leading telecom companies operating in the region, including infrastructure suppliers Ericsson and Nokia and mobile operators Telenor, Telia, TDC, Tele2, Iceland Telecom and Vodafone Iceland.

10. The top five carriers in the U.S. AT&T pointed to launching 5G mobility services in Dallas, Waco, and Atlanta later this year. T-Mobile will focus on its 5G vision centred on enhanced mobile broadband, extensive connectivity, and new industry verticals. Conversely, possible merger partner Sprint announced expanding its mobile 5G service to three additional markets and an Internet of Things (IoT) program aimed at bringing packaged solutions to market quickly. The latter is a brilliant strategy, and that takes the IoT wireless wide area networking connectivity vision to reality. According to Sprint, over 550,000 developers are part of the newly launched IoT Factory ecosystem, and that massive scale should enable a successful program. Verizon reinforced its push into fixed 5G services with infrastructure partner Samsung, and U.S. Cellular spoke to rural 5G use cases around agriculture. The first commercial 5G projects are expected to launch in the US by the end of 2018 followed by Japan and South Korea in 2019. China will join the fray in 2020 whereas in Europe the deployments will slowly start by 2020.

The summarise the expansion of 5G network could mean a vast capital expenditure is rising to approx. 16 to 17 per cent of revenues generated by the mobile industry from 2020, up from 15 per cent now, said Mats Granryd, director general of the Global Trade Body GSMA.GSMA, which represents nearly 800 operators and around 300 suppliers, forecasts capital expenditure (CapEx) on mobile networks worldwide would be $500 billion over the three years between 2018 to 2020. To find the extra cash for the 5G rollout, operators are looking to shut down 2G and 3G networks to reduce the costs of running multiple networks and to free up the spectrum for 5G.

For More: techutzpah.com

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Rajashree Rao (Raj) is an Industry Thought Leader & Visionary for Next-Gen Transformation Technologies, - AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, IoT/IIoT/Smart Cities across Industry verticals, Digital Evangelist, Speaker, Writer, Mentor, and Entrepreneur. While Raj writes on a wide variety of subjects, her favorite topics are Next-Gen Technologies, Digital Transformation, Leadership, Women's Empowerment, and 'Self.'