UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond announced £1 billion or $1.5 billion of funding to boost 5G and fiber connections in the country.
Telecom regulator Ofcom has already decided to auction spectrum relevant for 5G mobile technology.
The UK will also be allocating £400 million or $500 million for a Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund to accelerate the roll out of superfast internet.
Viavi Solutions said it is working with network operators, equipment manufacturers and their ecosystems as part of major industry bodies to develop standards for 5G. The company is part of The White House Advanced Wireless Research Initiative in the US which fosters R&D and collaborates with companies such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Nokia and Samsung on 5G connectivity and beyond.
5G growth
5G subscriptions are expected to reach half a billion in 2022, according to Ericsson Mobility Report released recently. 25 percent of all subscriptions will be 5G in North America in 2022, representing the highest market penetration in the world.
Mobile broadband will account for 90 percent of all subscriptions by 2022. There will be 29 billion connected devices by 2022, of which around 18 billion related to the Internet of Things (IoT).
Viavi CTO on 5G
“The UK government is right to invest in 5G, even though the standards have yet to be agreed. 5G can’t come soon enough for mobile operators. They will need to provide connectivity for over 20 billion IoT devices – so everything from smart homes to self-driving cars – for the Internet of Things (IoT),” said Sameh Yamany, chief technology officer at Viavi Solutions.
It is estimated that IoT revenues will grow to $3 trillion by 2025 and $1.3 trillion will come from end-users. No wonder operators want a piece of that pie, yet IoT poses some unique challenges and mobile operators aren’t ready for a 5G future.
IoT devices have different and in many cases paradoxical needs. Connected cars require ultra-low latency to transmit information at lightning-fast speeds so other cars can avoid a hazard. Conversely video-intensive applications that run 4K videos will have demanding bandwidth requirements.
Viavi Solutions CTO said telecom operators will also need to provide connectivity for the latest smartphones too. It is a delicate balancing act.
A concept called Network Slicing in 5G holds the key to this connectivity conundrum. Multiple cloud-based network functions can be automated and programmed to meet different use cases across multiple technologies, bands and protocols. Yet mobile operators don’t currently have the infrastructure to take advantage of this.
Hopefully, government initiatives such as the UK’s Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund and the Advanced Wireless Research initiative in the US will inspire mobile operators – across the world – to prepare their networks better for 5G and beyond. That will put them in pole position to monetize a future always-connected smart 5G world.
