Huawei is particularly keen on working on what it calls 5.5G, and has released several products to open up F5.5G for commercial use.
This includes the industry’s first DC-oriented OTN product, the OptiX OSN 98000 K36, the industry’s first intelligent OLT product, the OptiXaccess MA5800T, and the industry’s first FTTR+X product with ultra-broadband backbone, 10G access, and all-optical smart support. Includes iFTTR OptiXstar F50. home scenario.
The event’s 5G presentation brought together some of the industry’s leading executives to address 5.5G.
UAE 5G developed country
Marwan Bin Shakar, Senior Vice President of Access Network Development at e& UAE, opened with a keynote address on the advancement of 5G and the UAE’s roadmap for advancing 5G development.
He pointed out that the UAE ranks first in the world for mobile broadband download speeds and fourth for fixed broadband speeds.
“2023 was a game-changing year for us as we launched our first private network and paved the way for advanced 5G,” he said.
Shakur said the mobile industry takes a “leapfrog” every 10 years and believes advanced 5G will begin now and continue to develop until 2030.
“I don’t want to talk about 6G because I think it’s too early, but [moving forward] We need true 6G. That is the use case that will drive the 6G requirements,” he added.
He said e& is moving towards advanced 5G by activating foundational technologies such as 5G standalone (SA), enterprise 5G, and high-speed field trials.
Mohammed Abdulaziz AlNujaidi, Engineering Executive General Manager of Zain KSA, then took to the stage to present the Strategic Implementation Guide for 5G Advancement.
Al-Nujaidi said that from 2019 to 2024, there have been several “constant” efforts and innovations leveraging 5G. As such, he believes we are in a great position as an industry to enter his 5.5G era.
The importance of 5G SA
Next on stage was Rajen Vagadia, Vice President, Business Development, Qualcomm India. He said 5G SA is a crucial step in driving the evolution of 5G.
He described the evolution from 4G to 5G as “seamless” but said 5G Advanced will bring significant improvements through network slicing and AI/machine learning (ML). This is another important theme for this year’s MWC.
“But we won’t be able to reach advanced 5G without 5G standalone,” he says.
That said, Vagadia points out that 5G SA is accelerating globally, with 121 carriers deploying or investing in 5G SA technology. He added that 47 operators in 25 countries have launched public SA networks.
“But some networks only have a dew SA site.”
Vagadia believes that the transition to 5G SA provides growth opportunities for businesses and that it will be a must for some businesses in the future.
