2019 is the year 5G begins its long march
Politics will play a big role in 5G as the USA and China in particular fight for dominance. In particular the USA has started looking to disengage from globalisation and has singled out 5G as a security issue with respect to China, and in particular Huawei. This has led to Huawei being banned form selling 5G networking equipment in the USA and some other countries, as well as being potentially denied access to US technology from American companies such Qualcomm, Intel and Google (Android). As with all things political the situation is fluid and uncertain.
China has already started steps to ensure it does not find itself vulnerable to the whims of trade politics in the future, and for Huawei in particular this means fostering home grown technology to replace what it cannot import anymore. Whether other regions, like Europe, take heed of the message that global trade has changed in nature and look to be more self-reliant in the future remains to be seen.
An example of this is the recent announcement by Huawei of HarmonyOS, a microkernel-based distributed OS for all platforms including mobile phones, wearables, laptops, and televisions. Based on a modularised concept, HarmonyOS can be nested and adapted flexibly to any device to create a seamless cross-device experience. HarmonyOS can run Android apps and is a potential replacement for Android, though Huawei insist they will continue to use Android on their smartphones for the foreseeable future. Currently HarmonyOS is being targeted at Internet of things (IoT) devices.
Politics aside, one of the key drivers of 5G infrastructure is the IoT. Fortune Business Insights in its latest report details how the IoT is rapidly evolving and is driving the global 5G infrastructure market to high double digit growth.
The report suggests that the global 5G infrastructure market will rise at a high CAGR of 76.29% during the forecast period, covering 2018 through to 2026. There is a massive demand for high speed internet among end-use industries and 5G infrastructure plays a crucial role in deploying such high speed internet services. The analysts in the report predict that the global market is anticipated to reach US$ 50,640.4 Mn by 2026, as against US$720.6 Mn in 2018.
“5G technology is expected to positively influence connected agriculture, smart cities, machine-to-machine communication, and home automation,” says a lead analyst at Fortune Business Insights. “Moreover, some of the prominent challenges faced by organizations with regards to improving reliability, performance, and connectivity can be resolved through 5G infrastructure,” he added.
According to the report, North America is expected to maintain its dominance in the global 5G infrastructure market. Early adoption of advanced technologies such as automation, IoT are significant factors driving growth. Growth in this region is also attributable to the rising demand for on-demand video services and rising trend of smart cities.
In Asia, 5G growth is complemented with strong LTE demand. Highlighting this is a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group that finds that healthy LTE growth and surging 5G investments in the Asia Pacific region added fuel to the Radio Access Networks (RAN) market upswing that began in the second half of 2018.
A key takeaway from the report is that the Asia Pacific region, including China, comprised more than 80 percent of worldwide RAN growth between 1H 2018 and 1H 2019.
One factor in 5G is the push of IoT markets offering both low-power, low bandwidth and high-bandwidth use cases. Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) deployments allow users to transmit a small amount of data from multiple devices at low-power levels. The high-bandwidth and low latency of 5G will also enable IoT use cases in applications such automotive and healthcare.
To illustrate this, a report from Information Services Group (ISG) finds that enterprises in the Nordic countries see the rollout of 5G mobile services, with their faster networking speeds, as a catalyst for the broader adoption of IoT systems. The report sees connected vehicles and smart buildings as the next big growth areas for the IoT in the Nordic region. Growth in the connected vehicles segment will be driven by usage-based insurance, vehicle diagnostics and vehicle-based computing platforms, the report says. Interest also is growing in intelligence transportation systems.
In the smart buildings space, the focus is on automation and security, with interest in using the technology in both commercial and residential buildings.
To conclude, the rollout of 5G is accelerating rapidly today and is expected to become dominant over the course of the next 5 to 10 years. The technology will enable a revolution in communications beyond the smartphone with an emphasis on IoT and AI use cases.
The mmWave part of the 5G paradigm is still further in the future, though developments in fixed wireless are poised to go mainstream. There are still hurdles in technology to overcome with the focus on higher frequencies below 6 GHz and mmWave. To this end, advances in GaN process technology continues to push the envelope in terms of frequency, power and cost.
The big curve ball facing 5G will be political, with the potential balkanisation of standards and networks. Hopefully, the worst case scenarios do not play out, but regions and countries need to be more cognisant of the changes facing global trade.
https://www.isg-one.com
www.delloro.com
www.fortunebusinessinsights.com
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
