IHS Markit: 82% of the world’s largest cellcos are testing “5G” – 2 years before IMT 2020 standard is complete

IHS Markit says that 82% of mobile operators participating in its recent 5G study are busy trialing and testing the technology, mainly in North America and Asia.  “Get ready, 5G is around the corner,” said Stéphane Téral, executive research director, mobile infrastructure and carrier economics, IHS Markit.

–>That’s despite the IGNORED REALITY that the true and only 5G standard- IMT 2020- is over 2 years from completion!

“5G is going live in North America by the end of 2018, and then in South Korea in 2019. Most operators in Europe, however, aren’t planning to deploy 5G until 2021 or later,” Teral added.

Eighty-two percent of operators polled for the study, entitled “Evolution from 4G to 5G: Service Provider Survey,” rated ultra-low latency (ULL) the chief technical driver for 5G, followed by decreased cost per bit (76%) and increased network capacity (71%). The participants were 17 of the world’s largest mobile operators with a combined 43% of the world’s 6 billion subscribers.

“Every technical aspect that’s related to substantial improvement in network performance — lower latency, higher capacity, higher bandwidth, higher throughput — while decreasing the cost per bit continues to receive high ratings in our survey,” Téral said. “This is logical because it’s the foundation of the 5G definition.”

Radio remains the most challenging network development item on the 5G agenda with 53% of operator respondents noting that radio is the area of the network that will require the biggest development effort to make 5G happen, followed by transport (24%) and management (14%).

Extreme mobile broadband (eMBB) was the highest-rated 5G use case driver among survey respondents, followed by real-time gaming. As real-time gaming requires a super-fast network with low latency, it cannot occur in the absence of eMBB; the same applies to high-definition (HD) and ultra-high-definition (UHD) video services and tactile low-latency touch and steer.

Even so, respondents expect fixed-wireless access (FWA) to be ready for commercial deployment first.

“The bottom line is early 5G will be an extension of what we know best: broadband, whether in FWA or eMBB form,” Téral said. “Don’t expect factory automation, tactile low-latency touch and steer, or autonomous driving to be ready on 5G any time soon despite being touted as the chief 5G use cases.”

5G readiness

About the survey

The “Evolution from 4G to 5G: Service Provider Survey” assesses 5G technologies,  market trends and mobile operator plans for deploying 5G networks. For the study, IHS Markit interviewed 17 of the world’s largest service providers, who together have 43 percent of the 6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. Respondents to the survey have detailed knowledge of the mobile network infrastructure and technologies operated by their companies, and they are influential in planning and making purchase decisions for mobile network equipment.

References:

https://news.ihsmarkit.com/press-release/technology/5g-trials-full-swing-12-percent-operators-moving-commercial-deployment-year

https://ihsmarkit.com/topic/technology-critical-insights-5g.html

https://technology.ihs.com/605082/evolution-from-4g-to-5g-service-provider-survey-2018

3 thoughts on “IHS Markit: 82% of the world’s largest cellcos are testing “5G” – 2 years before IMT 2020 standard is complete

  1. Qualcomm Technologies today announced that its upcoming flagship mobile platform will feature a system-on-chip (SoC) built on the 7nm semiconductor process. The 7nm SoC can be paired with the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X50 5G modem, which is expected to be the first 5G-capable mobile platform for premium tier smartphones and other mobile devices. Qualcomm Technologies has begun sampling of its upcoming flagship mobile platform to multiple OEMs developing next-generation consumer devices. The upcoming platform will transform industries, encourage new business models and improve the consumer experience as operators come online with 5G services later in 2018 and through 2019.

    “We are very pleased to be working with OEMs, operators, infrastructure vendors, and standards bodies across the world, and are on track to help launch the first 5G mobile hotspots by the end of 2018, and smartphones using our next-generation mobile platform in the first half of 2019,” said Cristiano Amon, president, Qualcomm Incorporated. “Qualcomm Technologies’ continued leadership in research and engineering allows for a future of increased innovation across multiple sectors as 5G connectivity becomes ubiquitous.”

    This flagship mobile platform with 5G is designed to enable premium connected devices that bring new intuitive experiences and interactions with power-efficient on-device AI, superior battery life, and performance while extending globally to innovative technologies, solutions, experiences and applications in automotive and IoT.

    Full details regarding the next-generation flagship mobile platform from Qualcomm Technologies is planned to be announced in the fourth quarter of 2018.

  2. Guidance offered by Mr. Francois Rancy, as a Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (ITU-R) in his opening remarks to the 19 November, 2018 ITU-R Study Group 5 meeting where he expressed the following views on IMT-2020:

    “Beyond WRC-19, I would like to stress the importance of the work of the Study Group for IMT-2020 telecommunications. Of course the work of the world conference is essential to provide harmonized spectrum, but in addition to that, the work of the standards in my mind is essential to ensure all those economies of scale for hopefully one standard and interoperability and roaming throughout the world.

    And if we want to build the global village which is the ambition of the ITU, we need to try to converge on a single standard harmonized worldwide to ensure. Not all parts of the world can be connected especially in the 50% population which currently is yet to be connected and to be able to do that we need to rely on the world’s globally harmonized standard. So thanks for your efforts.

    We have to keep in mind that investments for 5G will probably represent something like 10,000 billion dollars worldwide and when you are in this type of amount of money you can’t afford to have two standards, you can’t afford to divide the world into two incompatible types of devices. So this is really the challenge that Study Group 5 and Working Party 5D have to meet and I’m sure you are aware of the importance of these discussions…”

    Webcast of SG 5 meeting: https://www.itu.int/webcast/archive2/r2015-19sg5#video

  3. The following table provides the schedule of the planned major deliverables of ITU-R WP 5D:
    Date Meeting Anticipated Milestones

    July 2019 Brazil WP 5D #32
    • Finalize draft new Report ITU-R M.[IMT.1 452-1 492 MHz]
    • Consider further work regarding new Recommendation ITU-R M.[MT.3300 MHz FSS]
    • Progress draft new Report ITU-R M.[IMT.EXPERIENCES]
    • Finalize revision of Recommendation ITU-R M.1036
    • Finalize draft new Report ITU-R M.[IMT.MS/MSS.2GHz]
    • Update/Finalize draft new Report/Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT.1518 MHz COEXISTENCE]
    • Finalize draft new Report/Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT.3300 MHz RLS]
    • Finalize Doc. IMT-2020/YYY Input Submissions Summary
    • Finalize revision of Recommendation M.2012
    • Finalize Addendum 4 to Circular Letter IMT 2020
    • Finalize draft new Question ITU-R [IMT.Specific industrial applications]/5
    • Finalize draft revisions to existing ITU-R Resolutions, Questions and Opinion

    December 2019 Geneva WP 5D #33 (max 4 day meeting)
    • Focus meeting on evaluation – review of external activities in Independent Evaluation groups through interim evaluation reports
    • Workshop on evaluation of IMT-2020 terrestrial radio interfaces
    February 2020 [TBD] WP 5D #34 • Finalize Doc. IMT-2020/ZZZ Evaluation Reports Summary
    • Finalize Doc. IMT-2020/VVV Process and use of GCS
    • Finalize Addendum 5 to Circular Letter IMT 2020
    • Finalize draft new Report M.[IMT.AAS]
    • Finalize draft new Report ITU-R M.[HAPS-IMT]

    June 2020 [TBD] WP 5D #35
    • Finalize draft new Report ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.OUTCOME]
    • Finalize Addendum 6 to Circular Letter IMT 2020

    October 2020 [TBD] WP 5D #36
    • Finalize draft new Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT 2020.SPECS]
    • Finalize Addendum 7 to Circular Letter IMT 2020

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