The Fifth Generation: #2
Your regular IDC Australia and New Zealand update on all things 5G
In this issue: Korea takes a non-competitive approach; when is 5G not 5G; Qualcomm announce its first smartphone antenna for millimetre wave.
Let's be Friends!
South Korean mobile operators SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus have made a pinky-promise to all launch live 5G networks on the same date. The government encouraged this approach to help South Korea be the first country to launch commercial 5G and to avoid 'excessive competition'. South Korea anticipates launching 5G in March 2019, less than a year away. Will this group date approach work well or create a pressure cooker environment?
In New Zealand, IDC's 2018 Telecommunications Competitive Landscape reports says we can expect "initial rollouts will be incremental starting with 3.5GHz coverage and most customers waiting for their natural handset refresh to adopt a 5G compatible device. For 5G fixed wireless broadband we can expect a faster deployment infilled with millimetre wave for capacity." Spark may focus on urban areas to target fixed wireless broadband, while Vodafone will take a more incremental roll out. 2degrees is likely to sweat its 4G assets for as long as it can. Within Australia, expect a similar range of strategies with more head to head competition for network "firsts" in the fixed wireless realm. Optus has already announced plans to rollout out 5G for fixed wireless broadband from January next year.
5G Fake News?
US internet service provider C-Spire is calling its fixed wireless internet service '5G' because it, apparently, meets the IMT-2020 standard. The company is offering consumers broadband at 120Mbps, unlimited data, no contract for US$50 per month (about NZ$73 per month).
Here's how it works. C-spire install a neighbourhood hub into what they call a "hub home". From there, a proprietary iteration of Wi-Fi on the 5.8GHz band blasts internet goodness into nearby properties. If you join, C-spire install you a 'dinner plate' sized dish; you pay US$50 a month. If you are the 'hub home' you get free internet. This sounds brilliant but consider: organising truck rolls, the household doesn't pay its power bills, an incoming owner or tenant does not want to be the "hub home". But overall, like distributed energy, then distributed connectivity has some potential.
C Spire might brand this product '5G' but it is not in carrier grade licensed spectrum, and to get all strict about it, it is not 3GPP defined 5G. Don't get me wrong, this is an interesting business model, but it is not what the average person thinks of as 5G.
Back in Australasia , the 5G claims are a bit less wild. Telstra claimed the 'world's first 5G hotspots' recently. These are actually 4G hotspots attached to 5G backhaul (because no one has a 5G smartphone to take advantage of a 5G hotspot yet). These hotspots at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year gave Telstra the chance to see how its 5G backhaul links performed under load. Optus also claimed a 'world first' with its 5G public showcase and 8K video streaming, although later in its press release clarified that it meant "Optus’ first public showcase using a live Optus 5G network".
First 5G mmWave Antenna Causes a Stir
Qualcomm has garnered a ton of media attention in the last few days for making an antenna. The antenna is the first to work on both millimetre wave (mmWave) and sub-6GHz, including the C band (3.5GHz) that will be critical to widespread 5G deployment in both Australia and New Zealand. Qualcomm say that their antenna modules help overcome the "formidable" challenges of mmWave. What they mean here is that the antenna supports beamforming (electrically steered directional signal transmission). You can deploy up to four of Qualcomm's antennae into a smartphone.
Tune in next time for the next exciting episode of The Fifth Generation. Can't wait that long? Listen to IDC's Hugh Ujhazy's take on 5G Data Driven Insight now.
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