5G - A Transformational Technology for the Next Decade

At TLF 5G conference ‘5G for Delivering Transformation’, by CyberMedia and Voice&Data, Emmanuel Coelho Alves, Senior Global Director at Huawei Technologies, talked 5G, and the future outlook of the technology, with Ibrahim Ahmad, Consulting Editor, CyberMedia, in a fireside chat.

Digital Transformation and 5G: A Synergic Relationship

Starting off, the two industry stalwarts talked about how work from home has come as a boon for 5G. Alves said, "Today, connectivity is must, to keep us working and to keep us as well on every aspect of the society". Also, he added that one of the key aspects of the new network, broadband access, can help in this regard. While work from home has become more of a reality than ever before, the next-gen networks can benefit in two ways.

First, the end-users can benefit from the obvious upgrades, that is, better speed, lower latency; the works. From a telecom player's perspective, this gives them all the more ways to sell the new technology.

Emmanuel also said that he expected that working from home will also continue in the future, pandemic or not. Mentioning the rapid rise in e-commerce, the Huawei Senior Director said, "if you do e-commerce, you need connectivity". He further added, "digital transformation has been ongoing for the past few years. However, it has sped up over the past few months. I believe that every country is getting ready, putting it into practice and making the right policy for the industry".

More than Connectivity

When asked how 5G will connect the world, Emmanuel was quick to point out that the next-gen networks will not limit themselves to connectivity.

Two of the key deliverables, along with connectivity, remain content and cloud, for the consumer perspective. He added that enterprise had its own share of use cases. Emmanuel mentioned e-learning and video conferencing as two of the most in-demand use cases of connectivity for now.

"On the residential, it can be for e-learning and e-training, for students and other people alike. On the enterprise side, video conferencing has become the norm over the past year or so", he said.

"5G is not only about connectivity; content and cloud will play a key role", Alves said. Highlighting the key role of cloud in connectivity, especially with 5G, he added, "you need both cloud and connectivity; one can’t exist without the other. And when you get both, you can touch every aspect of our daily lives".

5G Going Full Steam Ahead

Ibrahim also asked Emmanuel about some of the deployments across the world that are already active. Emmanuel said that there are already more than 70 5G networks active across the world right now.

"They are targeting the different applications. Most of them are addressing video, and some new services as well. Some of these services have already been touched in 4G, such as gaming. We see in countries from Europe, Asia and Middle East having those services. There are some use cases that are from the residential market, and some are for the enterprise market", Alves said of the deployments.

Adding to the question before this one, Emmanuel added that the next-gen commercial services will seek to bring the best of both connectivity and cloud. Talking about broadband as a 5G use case, he said that it is something that "we see happening in quite a lot of countries". While Alves called broadband to be a good 5G use case, he said that the same wasn't the only choice operators have. "Eventually we will have multiple choices to suit the consumer", he added.

He also added that the new network has already gotten a large scale, saying, "in the next few weeks to months, we will see close to half a billion 5G users across the world".

Emmanuel concluded his thoughts on this by asking for patience. "Of course, 5G is still a young technology, so more will come from it".

Content - Made for 4G, Championed by 5G

Emmanuel also talked about some of the most important use cases of 5G. "I would put video on the top of my list", he said, while adding that even though 4G has already done it, 5G can extend what its predecessor has achieved.

Talking of video, he said that new use cases, such as AR/VR solutions, can really benefit from 5G technology. Further adding on the video-based content use cases, he said, "it <5G> covers video for streaming, for AR/VR solutions, that we will see soon, it can also see IPTV solution. There is also some work going on in broadcasting. There are a lot of capabilities that we are trying to leverage around this video use case".

He also talked about gaming as an intriguing use case for the next-gen networks. "Gaming comes next. Mobile gaming will definitely attract attention from countries, operators and third-party service providers alike", he said. Of course, with cloud gaming coming in the picture again, the low latency and high speeds of 5G can make gaming ultra-reliable and highly decentralized.

Talking more on low latency, Alves mentioned a lot of enterprise use cases that can leverage the same. "I could mention capabilities harnessing the low latency, such as sensors, maintenance, early detection of faults and defects, cameras for production lines, to reduce human intervention".

He described a use case that can help with automation and other Industry 4.0 applications. "The real time footage of the production lines can be uploaded to a cloud system, which can then process the same and check if there are any defects in the products, and to make a decision".

Again asking for patience, Emmanuel made a point to say that many 5G use cases are "longtail"; it will take a while to figure out how telcos can leverage 5G. "There will be more use cases to come, and there will be some use cases that haven’t been talked about today, but will exist in the future".

"Bumps on the Road"

While 5G has not garnered the best of publicities, there are some concerns regarding the infrastructure challenges. Of course, 5G demands upgrades, and it can use legacy infrastructure. Still, Ibrahim made a point to address the same.

Emmanuel said, "We do have sometimes what I would call “bump on the road”. So, that is something that we do have to overcome. In cities, it is not easy to get sites. From every aspect; regulations, equipment requirements. You need to get access to sites, regulators’ approval, spectrum. It is not a simple job".

Talking about India's 5G roadmap, he said, "we do believe and are seeing the early roadmap that India is developing for 5G. I believe that it is a positive trend and it just needs to go on".

Delivering True 5G

Emmanuel delved deep in the capabilities that the networks required to deliver a proper next-gen experience. "On top of the spectrum, which is the baseline for 5G deployment, there are some technologies which are required for commercial 5G networks".

First, he talked about massive MIMO. Currently, all the three telcos in India - Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - have deployed massive MIMO in their networks across circles. Introduced in 4G, this technology allows delivering network capacity higher by a factor of 10.

Emmanuel said that the new networks will need a combination of spectrum and massive MIMO. "The main advantage of massive MIMO is capacity; we do have advantage on coverage. So, it is a mix of both. Combining spectrum and massive MIMO gives a powerful radio pipeline, which gives multiple possibilities to deliver services".

Next, he talked about backhaul. Emmanuel added that while microwave can connect base stations to the network core, telcos still need a good amount of spectrum. He added that fiber can also help with the same.

"This is the base to delivering 5G; getting spectrum, using massive MIMO and a solid backhaul", Emmanuel concluded.

Safe 5G, Green 5G?

Most of the bad press the next gen networks have received is down to the apparent safety issues. During the peak of COVID-19, many blamed 5G as a culprit in spreading the virus (a virus, I may add, that was biological in nature). WHO had rebuked the same shortly thereafter; in India too, industry groups like COAI had called the claims "baseless".

This was also something that Ibrahim addressed in the fireside chat, asking questions about the safety and energy efficiency of 5G.

"First, talking about safety. Definitely, 5G is safe. Not a single country has a policy to control emission. This has never been done in the past, either", Emmanuel said. He added, "we believe that as of today, we have done enough research that we have done from the past, to guarantee the safety of the network. There are safety solutions in place that can be beneficial to the society".

Coming to the energy side of things, Emmanuel had already mentioned how 5G networks will use lesser energy as compared to legacy networks. He added, "this is something that we can see across every industry today; to deliver services and make products at the lowest possible use of energy".

Emmanuel reflected on the efforts of the industry to deliver 5G by using the least energy possible. "We, in the 5G industry, have the duty to deliver 5G at the lowest possible energy . In the US, the has said that energy efficiency has been shortlisted as one of the key requirements for 6G. So that is something we need to take care of", he said.

Selling 5G

The case of Vodafone Idea has been a real eye-opener in regard of the fragilities of the telecom sector. The key reason for this close call can be put down to one factor - low ARPU levels.

ARPU, or Average Revenue Per User, is a highly critical aspect of any telecom player. However, India's top three telcos are averaging an ARPU of Rs. 129.33, which is nothing impressive.

Interestingly, Emmanuel thought that operators can find a wide variety of ways to sell 5G.

"From a consumer point of view, operators can leverage more ARPU with the help of not only speeds, but also content. Content in the form of video, of gaming, by partnerships and so on. Operators can bundle together different connectivity with different types of content", he said, adding that the same was happening in many markets.

"On top of this, the enterprise segment can be offered various connectivity solutions by the verticals", he added.

He concluded that 5G will create more selling points for the operators, given its wide applications and diverse capabilities. "In fact, 5G will increase the possibilities, the ways to sell it to the end users. Use cases will be very important; depending on what is the target, the price can be related to the service that you can offer".

Private Networks - A Story of Hybrids

One of the most exciting enterprise use cases remain private networks. Companies have had private networks since forever; with 5G, however, businesses can achieve a lot more than just internal emails and logs. The next-gen networks can facilitate automation to an unprecedented extent. The low latencies can allow for AIoT/IoT-related applications that have never been implemented before.

Emmanuel said, "operators are implementing a hybrid solution, a public + private network. At the end of the day, we need both. Some use cases will be possible on a private network, and some will need to have everything on public". Citing the example of a logistics company, Alves said that it "might want to go with a mix of public and private network", given that it needs both coverage and low latencies.

"Operators have the ability to do both; to package both the public and private networks in a single, hybrid solution, allowing synergy between public and private networks", he added.

What Can 5G Do for India?

As far as this is concerned, the general consensus remains that India does not need 5G. Addressing the same sentiment, Ibrahim questioned Emmanuel on what 5G can do for India.

"5G, as and when it comes, will prove to be a very good fit for India and the NDCP", he said. Adding to the same, he highlighted some of the reasons why 5G will be successful in India. "India also has one more advantage. Telecom companies across the world are looking for scale, and India has scale. From a device point of view as well, India can cut down the price given the scale and the number of devices".

5G is looking very promising for India, Emmanuel concluded.

He also talked about how India can make use of the multiple delivery options to deliver connectivity across the country. "India is quite a large country. You can’t have one technology delivering everything, so it will be more on a case-by-case basis. There will be more development on wireless in some areas, and some areas will see the same on fixed. Of course, everything will coexist to deliver everything".

Lessons For India

"I believe one of key aspects is the ecosystem", Emmanuel said of the takeaways from success stories across the world.

"If we want to be successful in this decade, you need to address the network, the connectivity, and we need content. We need content and we need application". Emmanuel had stressed the importance of the same throughout the discussion, and he maintained the same till the end.

"India is on the right track for achieving the digital transformation", Emmanuel said, concluding the chat.