- Telecom operators have not yet completed the rollout of 5G mobile internet. They are already talking about building “5.5G” or “5G Advanced”.
- At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, executives from major telecommunications companies said they are working towards the rollout of 5.5G.
- 5G Advanced is the name of the next stage of 5G.
- This is expected to be much faster and, importantly, will help carriers get a return on their investment.
BARCELONA, Spain — Telecommunications operators have not yet completed the rollout of 5G wireless mobile networks. But executives at major carriers are already talking about building something called “5.5G” or “5G Advanced.”
There was a lot of talk about 5.5G at Mobile World Congress, a technology trade show held in Barcelona, Spain.
MWC brought together thousands of people from the mobile industry, including major telecommunications companies such as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, BT and Vodafone.
At the show, executives from these companies revealed that they are working on rolling out a new generation of mobile internet.
This would enable applications that are even more sophisticated than the data-intensive applications we have come to use today, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, and TikTok.
These apps are already well served by today’s mobile internet, but 5.5G is expected to power more advanced applications in the future.
This includes mixed reality headsets. This has gone from strength to strength with big tech companies like Apple launching the Apple Vision Pro last year and Meta upgrading to the Meta Quest Pro headset.
But it also means that some of the things that 5G promised us years ago will also start to become reality, such as self-driving cars, driverless air taxis, and smart manufacturing enabled via the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). do.
What is 5G?
5G is the next generation of mobile internet after 4G, promising super-fast data speeds and better coverage.
You probably remember a few years ago when mobile network operators were excited about the promise of 5G. Telecommunications operators in China, South Korea, the United States and Europe in 2019 properly began the launch of 5G networks.
Nearly five years later, consumer adoption of 5G remains low.
The number of consumers using 5G connectivity is increasing. However, it is still well below “mainstream” standards.
5G is the fastest mobile generation deployment to date, reaching over 1 billion connections by the end of 2022, rising to 1.6 billion connections by the end of 2023 and 5.5 billion connections by 2030.
However, 5G connections are expected to account for more than half (51%) of mobile connections by 2029, and are projected to grow by 56% by 2030. These figures are his latest as of January 2024, GSMAi said.
5G is being positioned by the telecommunications industry not only as a consumer product for faster download speeds, but also as a network that could support new technologies such as self-driving cars and driverless air taxis.
This is because it has less latency than 4G. This means the time it takes for devices to communicate with each other is significantly reduced, an important feature in scenarios where data needs to be delivered quickly.
But after investing hundreds of billions of dollars in 5G networks, carriers are struggling to reap the rewards. Analysts say the real possibility of monetizing 5G may be on the horizon.
What is “5.5G” and why are carriers talking about it?
5G Advanced, or the next stage of 5G as it is called, is the next evolution of mobile networks.
Telecommunications networks require standards. These are globally accepted technical rules that define how technology works and its interoperability around the world. Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems to work together.
These standards take years to develop and complete and involve multiple stakeholders, from businesses to academic institutions to industry groups.
3GPP, the standards-setting body that contributed to 5G, is using a parallel “release” system to create a platform for developers to implement new features at a specific point in time, allowing them to add more features in subsequent releases. provided to you.
In the 3GPP release system, 5G is considered Release 17. So 5.5G is referred to in the industry as “Release 18.”
Release 19 will be effectively 6G, another major network upgrade. Work on the 6G standard is also underway, but it’s still in its early stages.
“The main priorities in the development of the 5G Advanced standard are to increase the commercial relevance of 5G by expanding vertical markets, solving deployment issues, and continuing technology evolution to build a bridge to 6G. ,” Milind Kulkarni, vice president and head of wireless lab at InterDigital, told CNBC. .
“Standard research has introduced, improved, and finalized several new enterprise-specific features for 5G Advanced, including network slicing, private and public network integration, positioning enhancements, and even applications specific to each enterprise vertical. It has been decided.”
Howard Watson, chief technology officer at British telecoms giant BT, said 5.5G promises faster uplink speeds, allowing you to stream videos, post online and play multiplayer games much faster than before. He said it would be.
“My children’s generation, or dare I say, my grandchildren’s generation…that generation has a lot in common. And obviously that sharing requires quite a lot upstream,” Watson said. told CNBC on the sidelines of MWC. “Release 18 will probably double the upstream capacity.”
An additional advantage of 5G Advanced over current 5G, according to telco executives, is that the network itself will become more “intelligent” through the application of AI and machine learning, while improving performance and reducing overall power consumption. It is said that it is.
GSMA Director-General Mats Granrid told CNBC that he hopes the industry remains focused on staying in the 5G environment for years to come, as there is still a lot of work to do when it comes to monetization.
“I hope we stay in the 5G space for a long time, because in a 4G environment, typically you and I were the consumers,” Granrid told CNBC’s Karen Tso. It will be done quickly,” he said. “With 5G, 5G is primarily a business-to-business technology standard. And it will take longer for businesses to convert and use the new technology.”
“The usual period of 10 years between benchmarks is questionable whether that is sufficient,” Granrid added. “We want to be able to sustain a 5G environment. 5G is advanced and 5G standalone is perfectly fine. But we want to push the time and make sure we have enough mileage to invest and monetize. Show the world that 5G is a great technology.”
With 5G Advanced, carriers could start earning more revenue from 5G deployments by charging higher prices. And because 5G is focused on enterprise applications, it could become a much more important revenue stream for network operators than for consumers.
Telcos have not yet revealed how much more 5G advanced data plans will cost compared to 5G. But analysts expect to see revenue from 5G Advanced through smarter use of subscriptions and the use of AI and other technologies to operate networks more efficiently. .
5G’s main focus will be on enterprise applications, which could become a much more important revenue source for network operators than consumers.
The telecommunications industry is abuzz with talk about so-called “private 5G” networks, or non-public mobile networks installed on-premises at corporate workplaces, such as smart factories or remote surgeries.
When will 5G advance arrive?
Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei expects 2024 to be the year when commercial rollout of 5G advanced officially begins. For Huawei, 5.5G is a network capable of 10 Gbps downlink speeds. In case you’re wondering, this is extremely fast.
Huawei last week unveiled eight 5.5G “innovation practices” that it says will help carriers build 5.5G networks across all frequency bands. The company is working with carriers in the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America to advance 5.5G deployments.
It will take some convincing for consumers to move from 5G to 5G Advanced, given that there has been little noticeable improvement in upgrading phones to 5G over the past five years. . However, Philip Song, chief marketing officer of Huawei’s carrier business group, said it is important for carriers to successfully communicate 5G advanced use cases to consumers.
“The most important thing for us is how can we support our customers,” he said in response to a question from CNBC during a press conference last Tuesday. The “biggest success” of 5.5G will only happen if carriers “know the solution” and communicate it well to their customers.
In some markets, carriers are still working on 4G deployment, Song said. But he says he doesn’t think that matters because different parts of the world are “at different stages.”
Watson told CNBC he believes 5G Advanced will arrive on EE networks later this year. That’s because 3GPP Standard Release 18, or 5.5G, is already open for experimentation and carriers are working on it. This plan is expected to be completed by June 2024, by which time the protocols enabling 5.5G should be stable.
“Deployment of Release 18 is expected to begin later this year,” Watson told CNBC. “We plan to launch 5G standalone this year as well.”
5G Standalone is different from 5G Advanced. Also known as “true” 5G, this refers to the development of 5G networks that use technology independent of 4G and promise to realize the full potential of 5G.
5G Advanced, on the other hand, is a complete evolution of the network.
However, there is no firm date as to when the rollout of 5G Advanced will begin. And carriers are always on hand to get it up and running.
“We hope that we have enough bandwidth, enough latency, and enough capacity,” GSMA Director-General Mats Granlid told CNBC’s Karen Tso at MWC last week.
“That’s what we’re struggling with in Europe. In five years’ time, data usage will have quadrupled. And I’m really worried about what will happen at that stage.”
“Will there be road closures? Will there be traffic jams?” he added. “Will the situation get even worse and the landscape even worse? Such a worsening of the situation will reduce Europe’s competitiveness.”
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report
