5G
HYPE VERSUS REALITY By Rudolph Muller
is the new buzzword in the telecommunications
5G market, with many stakeholders promoting the technology as the next big thing which will revolutionise broadband. With promised speeds of 10Gbps and extremely low latency, 5G is punted as the enabler of the new Internet of Things world, where everyone and everything is connected.
Reality, however, does not match the hype which is created around 5G. A global research report by UBS found that 5G today is little more than a vision and will look an awful lot like 4G LTE, using similar or identical techniques to send and receive data.
The report highlighted that 5G is facing major challenges, which include the scarcity of optimal low-band spectrum which is forcing 5G into the unchartered waters of millimetre wave frequencies. As spectral efficiency remains constrained by the laws of RF physics, the search for capacity with 5G turns to the new frontier of extremely-high millimetre wave( mmW) frequencies higher than 24GHz.
While there is a lot of spectrum available in the extremely-high millimetre wave bands, it comes with drawbacks. The relatively weak propagation of high frequencies would require a superdense network of 5G small cells, which is a particularly big challenge in a large country like South Africa. High absorption also turns buildings, hills, and even raindrops into 5G’ s mortal enemies.
For mobile operators, which are under severe financial pressure with falling voice revenues and lower margins, the costperformance analysis of 5G versus 4G does not look rosy for the new technology. Although new developments like softwaredefined networking and sophisticated antenna technology may help contain 5G’ s proportionate cost, it will not be enough. The greater cell density associated with high-frequencies without a massive spectral efficiency does not make for good 5G economics.
Despite these challenges, South Africa’ s largest mobile operator Vodacom remains upbeat about rolling out 5G in the future. Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said through their significant investments in 4G, they have established a foundation that will enable them to offer their customers 5G services sometime after 2020 when this new mobile standard will be introduced internationally. Joosub is confident that 5G will have significant new capabilities in terms of speed, network capacity, and latency.
Joosub, however, highlighted that the path towards 5G, and the speed at which it is implemented in South Africa, will be determined by availability of spectrum. Vodacom is determined to be at the forefront of the new technology, but this will only be possible if local operators have sufficient spectrum. ■
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