5G: What is it, and why do you say we need it? Separating ridiculous vendor hype from hard reality

Charlee Gothard
clock • 11 min read

"5G is currently many things to many people" and other deflating industry flim-flam

"The current vision is 100x faster and 1000x more capacity than 4G. But 4G can already deliver 100Mbps - much faster than anyone could possibly want, so going even faster is pointless," explained Webb.

"More capacity is good, but comes at an increasing cost and MNOs (mobile network operators) are seeing declining revenues, so are disinclined to invest in expensive solutions and are looking for ways to expand capacity within 4G. So neither aspects of this vision make much sense. Instead, ways to deliver better, more consistent coverage at current data rates would be much more valuable."

Asked to technically define 5G and how it'll work - in strict line with my questions - Webb told me:

"It is still very unclear how 5G will work as there are many different elements to it and many different strategies being followed by different organisations and research groups," which is basically what I expected.

However, he does believe one of two main variants, will appear - one of which is quite strange indeed when compared to our existing over-the-air infrastructure and delivery for 3G and 4G:

"One is the use of 5G to deliver fixed wireless broadband, which is a wireless connection to the home, as opposed to using fibre, and is likely to first appear in the US in the coming years. The other approach is to enhance 4G to make it faster, more responsive and able to handle more data, which seems more likely to happen across many operators over the coming years. However, how much improvement will be delivered and by when is still unclear."

In terms of how our "5G" will be delivered, Webb sees the need for "physical equipment at base station sites which would be within core networks".

"It will make use of emerging radio concepts such as large antenna arrays that can steer beams," he added.

 

Magic beams

It's the wireless angle and its beams which seems to be capturing the public imagination, and what OFCOM (not to mention O2 and friends) seem to be bandwaggoning on.

OFCOM offered an update on its thinking on 8 February 2017, defining 5G as "the next generation of mobile technologies" which will offer "extremely fast data speeds" for "innovative new services across different industry sectors".

When I asked Webb whether the toss-up between infrastructure cost and labour to lay it out versus end users needs would match, he replied:

"At the moment it is very unclear how 5G will compare to its predecessors in terms of user requirements. Most users require consistent connectivity - the ability to watch video or browse websites wherever they are. 5G promises to deliver faster data rates where there is already coverage, but whether users actually require this is debatable. Hence, there are many, such as myself, who have serious doubts about the vision for 5G and whether it is well aligned with the requirements of users."

Nevertheless, OFCOM's main drum to bang is the IoT craze.

"5G should help the evolution of IoT services and applications to improve interaction between different platforms," it gushes.

That's around a group of three different spectra: 700MHz, 3.4-3.8GHz and 24.25-27.5 GHz.

The latter, OFCOM (and the Radio Spectrum Policy Group) want to position as a "pioneer brand" for 5G "in Europe" (whatever this is, considering we're leaving it).

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