Following SK Telecom’s announcement on launching 5G smartphone service on April 3rd, there are continued interests around 5G service available in S Korea and details on actual coverage around the nation.

Therefore, on April 12, 2019, SK Telecom has introduced its 5G network coverage map to further enhance customer convenience through transparent communication. With this 5G coverage map, customers can now check the 5G service availability in Korea at www.sktcoverage.com. SK Telecom’s 5G coverage map shows that the company’s 5G network currently covers most areas of Seoul. The size of Seoul is 233.7 square miles, which is close to that of Chicago (234 square miles), Illinois.

The company has switched on its mobile 5G network on December 1, 2018, in selective areas of 13 cities including Seoul and six metropolitan cities, and has expanded its network coverage to main areas of 85 cities nationwide prior to launching its 5G smartphone service. The 5G network coverage map will be continuously updated as the company builds up more 5G base stations throughout the nation. In particular, it is expanding in-building coverage centered around 120 department stores, shopping malls and airports throughout the nation, and will expand 5G network coverage to nationwide subways, national parks and festival sites in the second half of 2019. We sincerely hope that this information will be useful for your future 5G-related reports.

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SK Telecom has also introduced four different plans for its commercial 5G offering.

The ‘Slim’plan offers 8 GB of data (1 Mbps speeds after the data cap is reached) at KRW 55,000 ($48) per month and the ‘5GX Standard’ plan comes with 150 GB of data (5 Mbps speeds after data cap) at KRW 75,000 ($66) per month.

Customers who subscribe to ‘5GX Prime’ (200 GB of data for $84 per month) or ‘5GX Platinum’ (300 GB of data for $110 per month) plans through the end of June 2019 will be able to use unlimited data without speed restrictions at KRW 89,000 ($78) and KRW 125,000 ($110) per month, respectively. Unlimited data will be provided on that promotional basis through the end of December, according to the operator.

The telco said it plans to update its price plans after analyzing the data usage patterns of subscribers of unlimited plans.

SK Telecom announced that it has secured around 8,000 different content in diverse areas including video games, ultra-high definition, augmented reality, virtual reality and communications.

Rival operator KT recently confirmed it has already deployed 15,000 5G base stations in Seoul and will install a total of 30,000 5G base stations across the country by April 5.

The carrier said that its 5G commercial offering will be available in 85 major cities nationwide by the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, LG Uplus said it has already deployed a total of 18,000 5G base stations in Seoul and surrounding areas as well as some metropolitan cities. The carrier announced plans to install 50,000 base stations within the first half of the year.

For the second year in a row, deployments of fiber-optic cable in China should decline year-on-year, according to CRU. And, for the second year in a row, deployments elsewhere in the world should offset this decline and lead to overall growth – just not as much in 2019 as in 2018, predicts the market research firm.

In recent years, China has accounted for more than half the world’s total annual demand for optical cable. China’s telecom network operators have installed fiber in the full range of telecom applications – inter-city, intra-city, FTTx, and mobile cellular systems. And as in other countries, China also has companies and government authorities installing fiber systems to support the electric power grid, railways, highways, pipelines, airports, WiFi hotspots, data centers, and many other applications.

Fiber deployments in China declined 1% in 2018, according to CRU.  However, fiber-optic cable roll outs grew 10% everywhere else, leading total deployments to rise from 492 million fiber-km in 2017 to more than 500 million fiber-km in 2018.

Fiber cable installations in China should decline even further in 2019, CRU predicts. The country’s three main service providers have largely finished their 4G mobile and fiber to the home (FTTH) roll outs, the market research firm asserts, while 5G requirements for now are limited to a relatively small number of metro markets with large field trials.  The transition period in China is not unusual. With the exception of a few carriers in Japan, South Korea, the US, and a few other countries, full-scale 5G construction is not expected until 2020 or later. What’s different about China is that the country’s carriers completed vast 4G and FTTH projects in a relatively small number of years, causing unusually high levels of fiber demand during those years. With China’s FTTH networks now having passed over 90% of homes, and with more than 80% subscribing it has become increasingly clear that China’s FTTx and 4G markets have become saturated with fiber and that demand from both sectors will be softer this year.

As was the case last year, fiber deployments everywhere else should continue to increase – but this time just by single digits. For this reason, CRU expects the overall market to grow by 2%, half of last year’s rate. With a few exceptions in such markets as Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., carriers won’t substantially increase fiber deployments for 5G backhaul until 2020 or later, CRU forecasts.

Should such delays cause a further slowing in fiber deployment growth, the end of a fiber deployment boom could be at hand. CRU notes that fiber installations enjoyed a 14% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 1997 and 2017. This led to annual fiber deployment totals to rise from 37 million fiber-km in 1997 to 2017’s 492 million fiber-km. CRU also notes that it took operators nearly 30 years, from the late 1970s to 2008, to deploy 1 billion fiber-km.  Network operators deployed half that total last year alone!

Since the start of 2019, there have been reports that fiber prices have fallen more precipitously. In early March, CRU assessed bare fibre prices had fallen further, back to pre-shortage levels – similar to, or lower than prices reported in 2015.  That’s depicted in this chart from CRU:

5G will be a key variable in fiber demand for many advanced telecom markets, including China over the coming years. The reason is that 5G construction will need fiber to link a much denser array of cell sites than in 4G networks. 5G networks will also support communications between many devices other than smart phones, tablets, and computers. Examples include automobiles, trucks, cargo containers, point-of-sale terminals, vending machines, smart-grid equipment, smart-cities and smart building equipment, and many other types of devices. These systems will rely on connections to new data centers, which also will drive demand for fiber.

Despite the recent softness, CRU forecasts China will account for approximately 50% of the growth in total global optical cable demand between 2018 and 2023 and will remain a key driver of demand mid-term.

CRU Report Author:  Michael Finch Head of Wire and Cable

References:

https://www.crugroup.com/knowledge-and-insights/insights/2019/what-is-behind-the-chinese-optical-cable-contraction-and-outlook-post-2019/

https://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2019/04/fiber-deployments-in-china-to-slow-this-year-cru.html

IHS Markit:  5G Market Set to Boom, but clarity needed

As global 5G capabilities expand, alignment of what 5G is, what end users should expect and how it should be measured will be critical to adoption

As the first commercial deployments of (pre-standard) 5G start to appear, the stage is set for consumers finally to find out what the powerful next-generation mobile standard promises can bring: an ambitious and far-reaching technological advance that transforms virtually all aspects of human activity—how we experience life, conduct business, create goods, and build societies. In its latest complimentary white paper, “The Promise and Potential of 5G,” business information provider IHS Markit explores the opportunities and challenges surrounding the upcoming global rollout of new 5G wireless networks.

Without question, 5G is helping set the stage for incredible change, but it remains a confusing landscape, with varied and sometimes conflicting interpretations of what 5G is and what to expect from it. This confusion is impacting not just consumers but also complicating the industry’s ability to measure itself against a standard set of 5G expectations and requirements.

To optimize short-term and long-term 5G adoption, it is imperative that clarity regarding what 5G is and when each capability will be available is established for both consumers and the ecosystem. To that end, IHS Markit follows the official 3GPP definition of 5G [1]but also believes that this description needs to be understood within the context of everyday experience and concepts.

[1.] ITU considers 5G to be based on its forthcoming IMT 2020 recommendations.  Those are the only official standards for 5G.

https://news.itu.int/5g-fifth-generation-mobile-technologies/

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According to the previously referenced IHS Markit 5G white paper, 5G will improve existing services and enable new use cases, such as driverless cars, immersive entertainment, zero-delay virtual reality, uninterrupted video and no-latency gaming. On the industrial front, 5G will be key to expanding and realizing the full promise of the internet of things (IoT), with the technology’s impact to be felt in smart homes, smart cities and smart industries.

“The marketplace implicitly understands 5G represents an unprecedented growth opportunity, with the initial smartphone rollout set to generate record shipment volumes,” said Francis Sideco, vice president, technology  at IHS Markit. “However, fewer people understand the iterative nature of major technology rollouts such as the one we are going through now with 5G—a process involving multiple major updates that will add new capabilities in the coming years. With each of these updates having the potential to significantly disrupt the market’s competitive dynamics, it’s critical for companies to clearly understand the implications of each rollout or risk falling behind the competition.”

Following initial sales of 37 million first-generation 5G smartphones this year, with initial shipments only now commencing, worldwide shipments will surge to 120 million devices in 2020, IHS Markit forecasts. This rollout will be the fastest ever for a new wireless generation, generating six times more unit shipments than previous record-holder LTE, over a similar timeframe. Benefitting from strong industry momentum and alignment, global 5G smartphone shipments will continue to rise in the coming years, reaching over 525 million devices in 2023. “Despite strong growth, the level of success among individual competitors in the smartphone and infrastructure market will hinge on their ability to shift their business strategies in parallel with the evolution of 5G,” Sideco said.

New 5G technical standards (i.e. IMT 2020 from ITU) will eventually enable the creation of applications that could open new opportunities, inform new business models and transform everyday life for multiple industries and billions of users throughout the world. However, many of these capabilities won’t be available in initial 5G rollouts, but instead will arrive in subsequent releases of the standard to be implemented over the next few years.  Each of the releases will deliver new challenges and opportunities not only for the wireless industry but also every industry for which the new use cases are envisioned. To fully realize the potential of these opportunities, competitors will need to understand and capitalize on new capabilities even before they are fully introduced.

The 5G standard’s next release is already on the horizon, with the expected introduction of Release 16 in late 2019. The upcoming release will deliver highly desirable enhancements, including far greater reliability and peak data rates of 20 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) downlink and 10 Gbps uplink. “This next phase of implementation and rollout will trigger a race among mobile network operators to meet and take advantage of these performance enhancements,” Sideco said. “The winners of this race are likely to gain a competitive advantage as they gear up for the next wave of growth.”

Future revisions will spur similar competitive battles, as 5G adds major new capabilities and expands into other markets beyond mobile communications, such as mission-critical applications and massive internet of things (IoT) deployments. “For companies throughout the technology supply chain—from network operators, to smartphone brands, to industrial and automotive device manufacturers and electronics suppliers—it will become increasingly important to understand the changes brought by each phase of the 5G deployment and to be ready to capitalize on the latest capabilities to gain a competitive advantage,” Sideco said.

To learn more about managing the complexities of the 5G era, download the free white paper, “The Promise and Potential of 5G.”

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In other 5G related news today….

Japan’s carriers plan $14.4bn spending blitz for nationwide 5G:

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has approved the allocation of spectrum after determining that the companies’ applications met the conditions of the allocation, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.  Japan’s telecom ministry has allocated 5G mobile spectrum to incumbent operators NTT Docomo, KDDI, and Softbank, as well as local e-commerce giant Rakuten.

The four companies plan to invest heavily in 5G, spending a combined 1.6 trillion yen ($14.4 billion) over the next five years. Docomo is planning the largest spend, with goals to invest at least 795 billion yen in 5G over this time.

Japan’s mobile operators have set aside $14 billion to invest in 5G networks over five years. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)

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The four Japanese wireless carriers plan to commence commercial 5G services in 2020, with KDDI and SoftBank planning to commence advertising for its services in March.  Rakuten Mobile, Japan’s upcoming newest market entrant, plans to commence 4G services in October 2019 and 5G services in June 2020.

The conditions for the allocation of spectrum included commitments to commence services in every prefecture of the nation within two years, and set up 5G base stations in at least half the country within five years.

According to the report, Docomo and KDDI are each targeting more than 90% 5G population coverage by the end of the five years, while SoftBank is targeting 64% coverage while Rakuten is aiming for 56%.

The Japanese government wants industry to build out 5G infrastructure widely, from big metropolitan areas to rural regions. It expects the technology, which offers speeds up to 100 times as fast as 4G, to enable self-driving buses and telemedicine, and to help Japan combat its worker shortage.

The conditions required for receiving 5G spectrum included starting services in every prefecture within two years. The communications ministry also divided Japan into 4,500 blocks, requiring operators to set up base stations in at least half of them within five years. Docomo and KDDI each plan to achieve coverage of more than 90% in that time. SoftBank and Rakuten set less ambitious goals, at 64% and 56%, respectively.  The requirement will force mobile operators to balance making heavy investments with attaining profits.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/5G-networks/Japan-s-carriers-plan-14bn-spending-blitz-for-nationwide-5G