Mobile phone company Vodafone continues its efforts to drum up support for its proposed merger with Three UK, today announcing the following new research.It is in a hurryThe rollout of standalone 5G (mobile broadband) could contribute an additional £7.4bn to the UK economy by 2030, compared with a slower rollout.
Most of the UK’s existing 5G networks are on a non-standalone (NSA) basis, which simply means they rely on partially outdated 4G infrastructure. By comparison, Standalone (SA) reflects a pure end-to-end 5G network, with improvements such as ultra-low latency (high speeds), faster upload speeds, network slicing capabilities, and better support for the Internet of Things (IoT). can also be achieved. Improves device reliability and security.
Note: Network slicing allows multiple virtual network slices on the same physical network. Each slice is isolated from other network traffic and provides dedicated performance with the slice’s capabilities tailored to the requirements of your use case. However, this may conflict with net neutrality in some cases.
This year, Vodafone is introducing a new “5G Ultra‘ consumer package (here), which was initially limited to parts of London, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff, with more cities to be added in the future.
Latest research suggests that rolling out 5G SA across the country through rapid deployment could have significant economic benefits for the UK. However, please take all this hyperbole with a grain of salt. Assessing the economic benefits of faster mobile broadband and other improvements such as lower latency is notoriously difficult. Part of the problem here is that good 4G networks are often already able to do many of the things expected of 5G.
Examples of benefits from rapid deployment of 5GSA (nationwide)
• The UK could realize an economic benefit of £7.4 billion by 2030 if 5GSA infrastructure is rapidly rolled out across the country.
• 5G-enabled remote patient care could save the NHS up to £1bn a year, the equivalent of 15,400 full-time nursing posts, while councils could cut spending on social care by up to 5%.
• Meanwhile, the use of 5G-enabled technology across the rail network could save 25 million hours of journey time for passengers over the next five years, worth £325 million to the UK economy.
• 5G-powered smart city lighting has the potential to reduce energy usage, save money, and reduce emissions. The council could save him £700 million over the next five years, while emissions could be cut by 1 million tonnes of CO2. This equates to replacing 250,000 petrol or diesel cars. Comes with electricity.
Previous research by Vodafone UK similarly claimed that if rural areas had the same 5G coverage as urban areas, an additional 838,000 people would be able to access 5G services that currently don’t exist. The report further asserts these applications and benefits:This won’t happen without a more integrated mobile market” (I can already see where this is going).
As part of its mega-merger plan with Three UK, Vodafone aims to reach more than 99% of the UK population with its 5G SA network by 2034 and fixed wireless access (mobile home broadband) to 82% of households by 2030. ) has promised to spread the word. , that and so on.
Suffice it to say, this report is part of the carriers’ continued push to garner more support for the merger. Telecommunications operators even lobbied the UK’s digital infrastructure minister. The proposed agreement has recently faced some criticism, citing concerns about job losses, rising prices, security risks and a potential negative impact on competition.
Ahmed Essam, CEO of Vodafone UK, said:
“Speed is key when it comes to harnessing the most technologically advanced digital networks. Digital technologies have the potential to transform the way we live, work and access vital public services. The sooner we can offer these opportunities to our customers, the greater the impact will be across the UK.
We have already started, but our proposed combination with Three UK means we have the scale to accelerate investment to deliver benefits for businesses and consumers sooner rather than later. He has committed £11 billion of investment to help us deliver standalone 5G across the UK. ”
Sir John Whittingdale, Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure, said:
“In our increasingly connected digital world, access to fast, reliable connectivity has become an essential part of everyday life. This research shows why we have made rolling out high-speed connectivity a top priority. Bringing super-fast internet to every corner of the UK will ultimately inject more than £7 billion into the technology-led economy and help transform communities over the next 10 years.
At the end of the day, deploying 5G SA more broadly and at a faster pace should bring about a variety of significant improvements, which should be welcomed and encouraged. However, in our experience, real-world results are often much more modest and much more difficult to quantify, making the exaggerated optimism of these reports an accurate reflection of future reality. Be careful about accepting things as they are.
In particular, when talking about extending such coverage to rural areas, it must also be taken into account that the benefits of 5G SA are much more limited by sparse environments and the need for lower frequency mobile spectrum ( This means that the signal can travel farther, but there are limits to the available frequency spectrum, so you can’t push as much data as possible.)
We fully expect that future 6G hype will once again try to sell society on its ability to accomplish just about anything except the second coming of Christ, but carriers will be trying to sell it on 7G’s I might save it for. But you get the idea. A pinch of salt.
