Attributed to: Syed Ahmad Hafez Syed Nadzari, Editor, AOPG.
Now that 5G is here, there is a race among communication service providers globally to achieve 5G dominance. The global competition to become the 5G leader goes beyond raw data transfer rates, as it comes down to who can provide the most alluring set of services to customers.
Several nations are prioritising the rollout of 5G networks in rural areas in order to provide internet access to the underserved. Many others are concentrating on expanding 5G networks in urban areas to facilitate the growth of smart cities. Others are looking at how to use 5G to help pioneer new industries, such as autonomous vehicles and virtual reality.
The topic of 5G is, without a doubt, grabbing worldwide attention, especially when we talk about how it is able to completely alter the telecom sector. By the end of 2022, over a billion people around the world were taking advantage of 5G’s lightning-fast speeds and ubiquitous connectivity. The achievements made by 5G in its first three years are equivalent to those that 4G made in its first five years. Moreover, data showed that the top 20 operators in the world had seen a rise in average revenue per user of 10% and an increase in revenue of 6%.
Is 5G living up to its hype? My answer is yes!
In just a few short years, we have witnessed how 5G’s prospective applications went well beyond what was possible with conventional telephone networks. It might hasten the transition to digital production across entire markets. There were more than 10,000 private 5G networks up and running by the end of 2022, and their influence on enterprises was palpable. The incredible enablement effect of 5GtoB on DICT revenue reported by Chinese carriers was found to be between three and ten times larger than previously estimated. The widespread enthusiasm for 5G demonstrated the technology’s potential to revolutionise not only the telecoms sector but also entire markets and the way we live and work.
UAE Leading the 5G Race in the East
Although there are some nations that are struggling to actually implement 5G, you would be shocked if I say that 2023 will make 5G a topic of the past. Despite being in a part of the world that does not seem to be at the pinnacle of 5G deployment, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can be considered a different breed.
While the others are busy trying to implement 5G and battling to establish a 5G network in their respective countries, a telecom provider in UAE has taken a step that would pave the way for the introduction of the 6G network by 2030!
du from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) and Huawei signed an MoU on 5.5G strategic cooperation on Sunday, ushering in a new era in their long-standing relationship.
The agreement was signed at the Mobile World Congress 2023 (MWC23) in Barcelona and it calls for increased collaboration between the two parties in the areas of 5.5G innovation (both technological and E2E network evolution). The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will aid du in improving the user experience and making significant strides in the 5.5G industry in the United Arab Emirates.
Together with Huawei, the UAE’s du has become one of the region’s most rapidly expanding telecommunications providers, thanks in large part to du’s exceptional performance in the area of 5G network experience and service development.
Pioneering the Path to an Intelligent Future with Huawei
To help organisations move towards 5G and a more intelligent future, Huawei has developed the GUIDE business plan, a whitepaper that examines future trends in changing demands in the telecom operator market and clearly defines a roadmap for the network and service transformation of operators. The plan outlines five working principles aimed at increasing service capacity, implementing efficiency-oriented innovations, making use of resources correctly, creating value in competition and contributing to society.
Thus far, the GUIDE has helped carriers speed up their transition towards the intelligent world by integrating commercial and technical requirements and providing them with examples to follow. Transitioning to an intelligent environment is a long-term evolutionary process that must be implemented methodically. Most operators have already seen financial success with 5G, and it will continue to be an integral part of their success both now and in the future. This has made it possible for carriers to pioneer the digitalisation of their sector and gain ground-breaking 5.5G expertise.
An important turning point will be reached in 2025 when 5.5G is implemented, allowing for ten times the capabilities and the opening of one hundred times the market space. Not long after that, we’ll take another giant leap towards an intelligent future with the arrival of 6G. Vendors like Huawei prioritise R&D in 5G and other emerging technologies to ensure that they remain innovative industry leaders. My recommendation to operators is that if you want to succeed in the 5G market, you need to work hard to build partnerships with such vendors and pay attention to their input.
The fact that Huawei and du have already inked an agreement to continue working together on 5.5G is encouraging. The future is bright for everyone because of developments in technology like Extremely Large Antenna Array-Massive MIMO (ELAA-MM) and Passive IoT, and their resulting new applications like Metaverse and holographic meetings. Our collaborative efforts to make the world smarter and more interconnected will be guided by the GUIDE plan.
5.5G Bridging the Gap Between 5G and 6G for Revolutionary Developments
The advent of 5G technology has already revolutionised our means of global communication and connection; 5.5G promises to take things to a whole new level. To bridge the gap between 5G and 6G, 5.5G will provide ten times the speed and connectivity of the current 5G network. Downloading, streaming media and general internet use will all be accelerated thanks to this capability, which can go up to 10Gbps for any user. Uplink Centric Broadband Communication (UCBC), Harmonised Communication and Sensing (HCS), and Real-time Broadband Communication (RTBC) are also new features that are now being discussed and will be finalised in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as part of 5.5G.
The development of 5.5G is progressing, with specifications for 5G Advanced or 5.5G deployment planned to be provided by the 3GPP Release 18 by the first quarter of 2024. That same year, we should expect to see the first widespread deployments of 5.5G in the commercial sector. Many sectors, including healthcare, transportation, and education, stand to benefit from 5.5G’s arrival, as the standard is expected to pave the way for new use cases and innovations.
5.5G’s super-fast data transfer rates and improved network coverage will pave the way for revolutionary developments in fields as diverse as driverless cars, sophisticated robots, virtual and augmented reality, and more. Since we are getting closer and closer to a more interconnected and intelligent society, this is an exciting time to be a tech enthusiast.
