39 TECHFEED 5G
THE DEPLOYMENT OF G MAY BE VERY EXPENSIVE COMPARED TO THE ADDITIONAL REVENUES IT WILL PRODUCE INITIALLY
content owners in a powerful position, as you can see in the rise in cost of media rights. Everyone needs relevant content to distribute no matter which network they are using. As a result, larger players in the market will probably challenge the smaller operators and distributors. Local distributors can choose to become bundlers of content oerings and act as reseller channels, but they will still be threatened by global trends and distribution oerings. In terms of business models, I think you’ll see big changes in which companies will still be around in ten years’ time. You will also see new bundles of media services that have not existed before.” DODGING POTENTIAL PROBLEMS However, Alner comments that all this speed does come with problems: “5G networks will be very dierent from today’s 3G and 4G networks. They require real-time, end-to- end visibility; automated, intelligent resource analysis and
allocation; and most importantly, they will be underpinned by software-defined networking control. The success of 5G, therefore, and whether its potential is fulfilled, will depend on how these components are deployed and managed.” “5G is a global opportunity but uncertainty still surrounds several key technologies required to make it a reality,” says Zarri. “Not all technologies for 5G have been proven, especially at commercial scale. The speed and extent of 5G deployment will also depend on local demand for it, and this means that fragmentation could be a real danger for its global success. We think that the critical development will be in virtualisation and the ability to do network slicing because this allows mobile operators to generate multiple types of networks from the same infrastructure and support multiple types of businesses associated with them. For us, virtualisation and the new architecture that is designed around it is the major revolutionary aspect of 5G.” HISTORY OF MOBILE NETWORKS
ON THE MOVE 5G will make experiences totally mobile, without being reliant on static Wi-Fi
First 5G test network built in Finland
China tests 5G networks in 100 cities; NTT DoCoMo and Ericsson achieve 20Gbit/s with connected mobile devices in 5G trial; Google starts developing 5G network SkyBender
Samsung and Arqiva conduct trial of 5G Fixed Wireless technology in central London; SaT5G consortium launches project to integrate satellite into 5G networks
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