Thoughts from Subex
2020 has been touted as the beginning of the road to 5G. While we continue to ride along that road, the current global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has caused CSPs to take a step back and plan their investments and their roadmaps even more judiciously. Hence while 5G is still the ‘talk of the town,’ it has certainly faced its first major global hurdle. This effect can be demonstrated through 3GPP’s decision to delay its Release 16 (initially planned for June), covering some key specifications related to URLLC. This step will further delay planned 5G rollouts.
COVID-19 has also shifted the usage focus from mobile internet to fixed-line broadband, adding significant revenue strain for mobile-only CSPs in some of the regions. 5G FWA was seen as a solution, especially for rural markets; however, it has had to take a back seat. CSPs, now more than ever, need to optimize their capacity if they are to seize their share of the pie.
On the other, and slightly more humorous side, there are rumors, or rather baseless conspiracy theories, of how 5G is slowly killing us, sparked by the onset of COVID-19. We at Subex obviously do not pay heed to such rumors, but it did make waves in the news, and hence we have added it in this newsletter.
On that note, here the first and latest version of our Capacity Management Newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.
Top News from the Sector
What is 5G?, Your questions answered
Companies are racing to have the fastest or largest 5G networks. And countries are competing to be the first to deploy fully functional, nationwide 5G. That’s because the benefits of the new technology are expected to fuel transformative new technologies, not just for consumers but also for businesses, infrastructure, and defense applications. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/03/business/what-is-5g/index.htmlIs 5G Going to Kill Us All?
A new generation of superfast wireless internet is coming soon. But no one can say for sure if it’s safe. https://newrepublic.com/article/157603/5g-going-kill-us-all5G FWA, Game Changer for Fixed Broadband
FWA offers an ideal solution to providing high-speed access for households lacking fixed network coverage or with increased bandwidth demand. As well as this, it’s easy to set up, eliminating the need for home visits. https://www.lightreading.com/partner-perspectives-(sponsored-content)/5g-fwa-game-changer-for-fixed-broadband/a/d-id/759705Core Internet players will ‘easily absorb’ COVID-19-induced traffic surge, Internet Society says
Amid lockdowns, school closures, and an influx of at-home workers as part of efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, questions are swirling about whether the world’s Internet infrastructure will buckle under the stress of the anticipated surge in data usage. https://www.lightreading.com/optical-ip/fttx/core-internet-players-will-easily-absorb-covid-19-induced-traffic-surge-internet-society-says/d/d-id/758202Open RAN Policy Coalition launches to ‘spur competition’ in 5G
A new group of operators and telecom network hardware and software vendors announced today the formation of the Open RAN Policy Coalition. As 5G deployments continue around the world, open RAN has gained momentum based on selling points, including breaking vendor lock-in, letting operators mix-and-match components, reducing TCO and increasing performance. https://www.rcrwireless.com/20200505/policy/open-ran-policy-coalition-launches Insights from your peers As per 2019 annual report, Vodafone Group will expedite 5G deployments in the coming months to bring down the unitary cost. “The cost per gigabyte on a 5G network is up to 10 times more efficient than on 4G, therefore driving unitary cost down.” – – http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/77/77862/annual-reports/annual_report19/downloads/Vodafone-full-annual-report-2019.pdf As per 2019 annual report, AT&T will launch 5G services nationwide with priority. They are expecting rapid growth in wireless video usage and will put heavy emphasis and focus on enabling towards next-generation converged services that combine technologies and services. https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR/financial-reports/annual-reports/2019/complete-2019-annual-report.pdf As per 2019 annual report, America Movil has talked about spending significant CAPEX to expand network capacities on a market-by-market basis. Surprisingly enough, they are talking about this investment in 3G and 4G LTE segment (Page 14), rather than in 5G. – https://s22.q4cdn.com/604986553/files/doc_financials/2019/ar/2019-20-F-EN.pdf As per 2019 annual report, Orange has explained how they are leveraging big data and AI to arrive at smart investment decisions, which helps the underlying business and yielding EUR 20 million savings per year (Page 88). https://rai2019.orange.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2020/05/rai_orange_2019_en_accessible.pdf
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