Telecoms.com survey results, presented in the report Private networks and NTNs: Transcending the boundaries of 5G, highlight the reinforcement of service reliability and additional layer of network redundancy as the most frequently selected impact of the convergence of 5G and Non Terrestrial Networks (NTN)s, according to nearly half of respondents. Engineers and developers are the biggest proponents of this impact with more than three in five respondents highlighting its value from a technical perspective.  The extra network redundancy is backup connectivity from NTNs to existing 5G networks (e,g, dye to a cell tower failure or massive power outage) and the ability to ensure continued service whether in times of crisis or otherwise.

Meanwhile, two in five C-Suite executives think it’s either too early to determine the benefits or that NTNs will only achieve a minimal impact on 5G performance, hinting that they may need more convincing to achieve full buy-in.

‘Deployment costs’ are identified as the top concern when converging NTNs with 5G for many organisations in telecoms and particularly so for CSPs, while ‘cost of infrastructure’ is the most frequently selected key challenge slowing down the large-scale adoption of private 5G.

The cost barrier is neither new nor surprising for these topics, or for many other telecom topics being surveyed, but what this is compounded with now is a global economy that hasn’t been stable for some time, whether due to the global pandemic, or the ever-growing number of wars around the world.

On private 5G, the report also highlights several 5G standalone features that are considered most important to enterprises. Here, network responsiveness (low latency, handover time, and ultra-low data rates) is flagged as the top feature closely followed by network slicing in radio (that is, reserving capacity for specific applications).

The report argues that “while these results shed light on key technical capabilities that telecom professionals consider to be critical for the use of enterprises in a private 5G environment, it is also important to note that focusing on business outcomes and use cases versus technical capabilities is likely more meaningful in discussions with enterprises.”

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3GPP introduced NTN into its Release 17, which provided an initial framework and Release 18 which included enhancements. 3GPP continues to work on NTN in Release 19 and beyond, focusing on aspects like onboard satellite processing, Ku-band frequencies, and integration with terrestrial networks. 

• Release 17: This release introduced the initial framework for 5G NTN, including support for NB-IoT and 5G NR NTN. 
• Release 18: This release focused on performance enhancements and additional frequency bands for 5G NTN. 
• Release 19 and beyond: Future releases, including 19, will continue to build on the NTN standard, with plans to enhance onboard satellite processing, expand to Ku-band frequencies for 5G NTN, and improve the integration between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. 

3GPP looks forward to the continuous collaboration with ITU-R WP 4B for the finalization of Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020-SAT.SPECS], which will be the official standard for 5G satellite to ground communications.

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References:

https://www.telecoms.com/5g-6g/5g-ntns-to-help-reinforce-service-reliability-and-network-redundancy-survey-finds

https://tc-resources.telecoms.com/free/w_defa8859/

https://www.3gpp.org/technologies/ntn-overview

ITU-R recommendation IMT-2020-SAT.SPECS from ITU-R WP 5B to be based on 3GPP 5G NR-NTN and IoT-NTN (from Release 17 & 18)

Standards are the key requirement for telco/satellite integration: D2D and satellite-based mobile backhaul

5G connectivity from space: Exolaunch contract with Sateliot for launch and deployment of LEO satellites

Momentum builds for wireless telco- satellite operator engagements