“You can begin now to conceive of robotic manufacturing that is always on and always connected via 5G networks,” says Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T Inc. “Just to put this into perspective, the Internet of Things, the devices and sensors that are connected all over the place, with today’s networks in a square mile you can connect a thousand, two thousand, or possibly three thousand of those. In a 5G world, you can connect millions of those in a square mile.”
The G means generation. So 2G is second-generation technology. When you went to your flip phone and you remember how you used to text using a 10 key device. That was 2G and allowed that kind of service. 3G is when the internet became mobile. Third generation networks allowed mobile use of the internet. The first iPhone was on 2G, but when it went 3G is when it exploded because you’re literally using the internet on a mobile device. Fourth-generation is what really enabled all of us to consume CNN video on a smartphone. It literally mobilized video. But for 4G technology, Instagram would not be what it is today. It’s all video. Facebook is virtually all video now. Just consuming all this video on a mobile device is facilitated by 4G.
5G is going to prove to be the most transformative of all the G’s that we have seen to date. First of all, it’s a step change faster. It also will have zero latency meaning you issue a command and it’s immediate. You’re just always connected. It’s a real-time network. It’s just like turning a light switch on, it’s real-time. This is really important when you start to conceive of services like autonomous cars. You don’t want to be in an autonomous car that’s dependent on a network with latency. It’s very serious. If a kid runs out in front of a car it needs to be a real-time, always on, and always connected network. This is really really important as you begin to conceive of these services.
In a 5G World, Millions of Connected Devices Per Square Mile
You can begin now to conceive of robotic manufacturing that is always on and always connected via 5G networks. Just to put this into perspective, the Internet of Things, the devices and sensors that are connected all over the place, today’s networks in a square mile you can connect a thousand, two thousand, or possibly three thousand of those. In a 5G world, you can connect millions of those in a square mile.
With each of those devices that are connected to the network you can now locate (very precisely) on a 5G network. Today, you can locate (only) within a certain number of meters. With 5G we will be able to isolate that device to within centimeters. Think about what you can do as you begin to get that kind of precision on location and so forth, and that kind of speed. I couldn’t conceive of the iPhone when we built a 3G network. You and I can’t conceive of all the services that are going to materialize with this kind of capability.
We’ve been talking about 5G for a very long time and now the opportunity is really here, says Kathrin Buvac, President and CSO of Nokia Enterprise. “We’ve said for a number of years that 5G will enable the Industrial Revolution.” Buvac added. “It’s clear that 5G has to be a lot more than mobility services. When I talk with enterprise customers I really do believe that these productivity gains that are spoken about are real. Operational efficiencies, process automation, all the way to dark factory operations to full autonomy, that is really what’s coming.”
We’ve been talking about 5G for a very long time and now the opportunity is really here. We’ve said for a number of years that 5G will enable the Industrial Revolution. It’s clear that 5G has to be a lot more than mobility services. When I talk with enterprise customers I really do believe that these productivity gains that are spoken about are real. Operational efficiencies, process automation, all the way to dark factory operations to full autonomy, that is really what’s coming.
Before we go to the deep depths of 5g technology I think they’re really two things. One is the convergence of IT and OT technologies. Enterprises need to bring their enterprise IT services and the operations technology together. That is not so easily done. The other thing is digital. Think about Amazon and Netflix and what they’ve done transforming physical goods, books into eBooks, and DVDs into streaming. That will not be possible unfortunately with Industry 4.0, meaning we cannot digitize a crane or a truck in a mine. That’s just not possible.
Industrial Digital Twins Powered Via 5G
What we will do is create digital copies of the big machines or robots. That is what we call the digital twins. What that has to do with 5G technology is that it all starts in connecting these sensors, these machines, these robots, these devices, the co-workers in the factories, in the minds, and in the energy networks. That is where ultimately we will need 5G technology because of the big promise of lower latencies or higher bandwidth capacity, etc.
I think there are a few geographies that are leading the industrial automation. I would say from our standpoint it’s clearly the US. It is clearly Germany where car manufacturing and many manufacturing opportunities are coming. It’s Japan and it’s a few other geographies across the globe that are really leading the pack right now in terms of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that we have to look into.
The Industrial Opportunity is Striking
One thing that is striking me is the industrial opportunity. Over 15 million industrial sites will be deployed in the next decade. We have today 6.5 to 7 million base stations deployed in LTE worldwide. So it’s more than double the number of industrial sites that we somehow all together need to deploy to enable IoT. How are we going to do that?
There is the issue of spectrum availability. We have to be super creative, whether that is shared license, CBRS, 3.5, large scale carrier subleasing spectrum, and making money through that. It’s so critical and that also determines which country, which geography, which enterprise customer will go first. Industrial devices will just not be as quickly available as the smartphone’s which will be made available this year. There is still a lag.
5G Is a Complete Redefinition of the Network
5G is a complete redefinition of the network. We have all discussed AI, edge, and cloud. But we have to bridge now for a couple of years for enterprise customers as we take them to 5G. The question is really because enterprise customers want to leverage productivity gains now, not tomorrow, like yesterday. The question is really how do we do that? Can we potentially provide private wireless networks, with the help of our telco customers, to enterprises that can then just be a software upgrade to 5G? We would do this while we deploy industrial sites today based on LTE technology.
Enterprise customers are wired a little bit differently than us consumers. think about uplink video. We’re just so used to down-linking from tablets as consumers. We need a lot of uplink capacity if we use email or if we browse. If for a millisecond the network doesn’t work it bothers us, but it’s not the end of the world. But we need six nines reliability in the network in order to make sure we have the unmanned vehicles in the mines or the robots and the factories running precisely with that accuracy. A lot of work is needed still to get the 5G networks where they need to be, but it’s really exciting times to build that infrastructure.
5G is really going to become the fabric of connectivity around the world, says Affirmed Networks CEO Hassan Ahmed. “The whole world is getting smarter,” he noted. “5G really brings blazingly fast internet access, new entertainment like virtual reality, and massive connectivity in cities to create smart cities. It brings everything from your home security system to the security of entire cities. This is what 5G is about.”
Hassan Ahmed, Chairman and CEO of Affirmed Networks, discusses the massive impact 5G is going to have and how Affirmed’s virtualization solutions dramatically impact enterprises in an interview on CNBC International:
5G Will Be the Fabric of Connectivity Around the World
5G is really going to become the fabric of connectivity around the world. The whole world is getting smarter. 5G really brings blazingly fast internet access, new entertainment like virtual reality, and massive connectivity in cities to create smart cities. It brings everything from your home security system to the security of entire cities. This is what 5G is about.
We pioneered this notion of creating these networks and software. That dramatically changes the economics and enables this to be rolled out on a grand scale. 5G is really a brand new capital cycle for the operators. The rollout of 5G is very different from 4G in the sense that this is very software driven. It’ll be running software in data centers. This makes it very very flexible for creating innovation and new services as we move forward.
Affirmed Changes How Networks Are Built
As we move to virtualization this is really a step change in how networks are built. If you think of the old way of building networks, they’re about buying these clunky boxes and scattering them around the countryside, which is very inflexible. What our technology enables you to do is to be very flexible and deploy this on a grand scale in data centers. Trust is a very important piece of the puzzle because the mobile core is where all of the service intelligence resides. It’s where you have to be secure and where you have to protect to avoid backdoors and things like that. Trust is a very key part of delivering these core networks.
The operators who are our clients and who build these networks have access to all the data that is flowing through the network. The way that data is used is really enabled by the core network. We see basically every piece of traffic that goes through the network. Many enterprises will enable end-to-end encryption so what goes through the network is already encrypted. Then what we do on top of that is we try to secure the network. We prevent intrusions and attacks and so forth on the network. We try to protect one mobile user from another. This is critical in isolating and delivering good security from that work.
5G Architecturally Will Be More Secure
At some level, everything is hackable because the more you secure things the more people come up with new ideas of how to hack. But 5G architecturally will be more secure. There are better and better security technologies that are being built into the capabilities of the network. Slicing is also a very interesting capability and we actually do it today in 4G. We’re one of the only companies I think that enables that in 4G.
With 5G slicing is native. The idea is that even if I discover that there’s a rogue user on the network I can create an isolated slice of the network and just quarantine them on that. We can create isolated slices for individual enterprises and that’s part of what provides more trust and more security.
About Affirmed Networks
Affirmed Networks delivers the world’s only fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile core solution. Affimed’s network function virtualization solutions couple industry-leading performance and scale with unbound service agility enabling rapid creation and delivery of new services.
Deployed in over 85 networks worldwide including Tier 1 operators such as AT&T, Vodafone, Telus, Etisalat, Softbank, and Turkcell, our webscale solutions allow operators to transform the economics of deploying and scaling 3G, 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi mobile services.
“We have done a study and we believe that by 2022 there will be over 400 million 5G connections,” says Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “This is one of those great examples where the reality is going to match the hype building up to this.” Robbins adds: “If you think about what this is going to create, we believe in 2022 the amount of new traffic created in that year will actually exceed all of the traffic that has been created since the inception of the internet.”
Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, discusses how technology is now defining enterprise strategy and how 5G is going to impact connectivity in an interview on Fox Business:
Technology is at the Heart of the Strategy
This technology is at the heart of the strategy of our customers. It is no longer enabling their strategy. They’re taking the technology and then they are defining their strategy based on what it makes possible. A lot of the focus over the last decade has been around consumer tech. If it’s on your phone you know what it does. If you use a social media app then you know what it does. What we do isn’t that clear to the everyday investor.
The technology that we are building are really enabling our enterprise customers and public sector customers to digitize and really take advantage of new methods of revenue stream. In the case of the public sector, new ways of delivering citizen services. Putting video connectivity out into rural areas and delivering citizen services virtually. There are all these things that are happening that are leading to continued demand.
5G Reality is Going to Match the Hype
We’ve been talking about 5G for many years. The trials are beginning this year. This is one of those great examples where the reality is going to match the hype building up to this. The fundamental difference that this technology is going to bring is (massive). In 2022 you’re going to see speeds that average 4-5 times more than we get today. If you think about what it enables, not only higher speeds and lower latency for mobile devices, but we are going to get connectivity into rural areas that we haven’t been able to because the cost of digging trenches and laying fiber has just been prohibitive. Now we can do this with 5G.
We are going to be able to connect people who have not been connected before. We have done a study and we believe that by 2022 there will be over 400 million 5G connections. What happens is when you get to a place where you have all of this high bandwidth capacity out at the edge of the network then the core infrastructure has to be updated to actually accommodate that. That’s one of the big roles that we are going to play is delivering innovation that actually allows our customers to deal with all this traffic.
5G is going to provide everything from the ability to connect IoT devices to things in your home and vehicles, all the way to connecting enterprise branch locations. The whole notion of lower latency is really what’s required to do real-time video applications. If you think about what this is going to create, we believe in 2022 the amount of new traffic created in that year will actually exceed all of the traffic that has been created since the inception of the internet.
Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon sees enormous potential for 5G to change the form factor of devices. “The most important thing is as you change your experience with 5G you’re going to want a different type of device and a different type of screen size and resolution,” says Amon. “The apps are also going to become way more powerful and you will actually have more powerful hardware that goes along with.”
I feel that there’s enormous potential for 5G to change the form factor of devices. We’re very proud of this partnership with Samsung and how they have been a great partner pioneering this new technology with us. We also see a number of different devices being announced and we see a potential for form factors to change. The most important thing is as you change your experience with 5G you’re going to want a different type of device and a different type of screen size and resolution. The apps are also going to become way more powerful and you will actually have more powerful hardware that goes along with.
Bigger screens are here to stay. I think you will see the opportunity for larger screens as you have flexible OLED technology. You’re also going to see devices that are more specialized for more capable gaming because 5G will allow you to have mainstream gaming on 5G devices. You’re going to see devices there are going to converge between productivity. Over time, we expect to see virtual reality or augmented reality devices as well as a companion to your phone that is going to be using 5G technology. We hope that they look like eyeglasses.
Qualcomm 5G PowerSave Technology
One of the big announcements we’ve made at the show (MWC Barcelona 2019), we’re very proud of it, is the Qualcomm 5G PowerSave technology. That is actually a technology that is allowing the first generation of 5G phones to allow you to have all-day battery life. We have a very mature smartphone base today and users won’t settle for any less than we have on your phones currently. I think that’s the bar for those new 5g flagships. We’re happy a number of OEMs announced phones at this show with this technology.
I will do a comparison because I think sometimes we forget about what happened in 4G. When we were about this time launching 4G technology, that was over a decade ago, we had two operators and four devices. Look where we are right now. We have 20 operators and 30 devices. It’s an order of magnitude different. Actually, it’s a proxy about how much faster 5G is going to get deployed.
VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger suggests that with the advent of 5G the telco network should be built like the clouds. “Why can’t we build the telco network like the clouds have been built for with scalability, flexibility, efficiency, and agility?” says Gelsinger. “That’s really the idea of the telco cloud. As people go to what’s called NFV, network function virtualization, and as they’re looking ahead to 5G services, can’t we have a new architecture for building the telco cloud? But it also is flexible and scalable and helps them do services between 4G and 5G.”
What it really is about it’s saying that over the last decade and a half we’ve gotten pretty good at building clouds. Why can’t we build the telco network like the clouds have been built for with scalability, flexibility, efficiency, and agility? That’s really the idea of the telco cloud. As people go to what’s called NFV, network function virtualization, and as they’re looking ahead to 5G services, can’t we have a new architecture for building the telco cloud? But it also is flexible and scalable and helps them do services between 4G and 5G. It also helps them bridge so as they build these new services they can run them on the old as well as prepare services for the new.
The telco market is like 80 percent the size of the data center and cloud market. This is big. It’s a huge adjacent market that largely we’ve never touched before. We’re really excited about that. If you think about what we’ve done, it’s about building this rock-hard infrastructure that never goes down. Data centers, businesses, and banks running it told the telco networks that they need rock-hard never-goes-down infrastructure. We really find a huge opportunity there.
2020 is the Year for 5G
I’ve said for a few years that I think 2020 is the year (for 5G implementation). I think when you when you see a show like this everybody’s starting to really gear up. The trials are underway. I really see 2020 as really where it’s going to happen. Right now the national anthem is playing and next year the game gets started. If you’re going to be a cloud you’ve got to be efficient. That helps the bottom line by building more cost efficiency and operational efficiency. You have to do that. But ultimately, it’s about the new services that 5G is going to introduce.
It’s hard to say how much Huawei (potentially being banned in Europe) is going to impact. Obviously, people who have large positions with Huawei today, it becomes easy to add 5G onto it. It is somewhat dependent on carrier and market. Our view of what we’re trying to do with virtualization is to minimize unique dependencies on any particular hardware market. Part of our value proposition exactly helps customers navigate through the 4G to 5G transition as well as picking different key hardware vendors. That’s what that virtualization layer does so we think we actually help customers.
We believe the Edge is the next frontier, says HPE CEO Antonio Neri. “When we talk about the enterprise of the future, we see an edge-centric, cloud-enabled, data-driven, enterprise,” notes Neri. “What that means is the cloud is moving closer to where the data is created. That’s driven by the use cases we see around us.”
Neri adds: “Whether it is healthcare, manufacturing, or transportation, everything is being connected. It started with connectivity and then soon after that is the security aspect. One thing is connecting devices and apps and one thing is connecting things to the network. That’s why our Aruba platform is such a unique asset because it provides connectivity and security with AI built-in at the core.”
Driving the Acceleration of the Digital Transformation
I would like to characterize that we had another strong quarter for the company. That’s further evidence that our strategy is working to accelerate the Intelligent Edge and to drive profitable growth in the core segment of the market called Hybrid IT. Because we are continuing to build our portfolio and we see the demand steady, we’re actually very confident to raise our guidance that we obviously beat in Q1. We see the rest of fiscal year 2019 as strong for us and give us the confidence to raise the guidance driven by the portfolio and the innovation we have and in the feedback we get from customers.
We see the demand steady. We have not seen any evidence of a downturn (due to tariffs, shutdown, etc.). Obviously, we are continuing to monitor the uncertainties around the globe, but the reality is that customers are making critical investment to drive that acceleration of the digital transformation. That’s all driven by the fact that the data around us has continued to grow. They need to extract the value of that data much faster than ever before. That’s why we see growth in segments like high performance compute, which for us grew 50 percent. Software around infrastructure grew 70 percent. Also, the connectivity in the Edge grew 20 percent in the wireless business. We see that as a continued trend.
When people ask me what’s going on around the globe with Brexit, for example, our UK business actually grew double digits. When you think about the government shutdown, actually one of the key products we sell in the government is high-performance compute, and it actually grew triple digits. So it has not had the impact, but obviously, we continue to monitor what’s going on around the globe.
Next Frontier: Edge Centric, Cloud-Enabled, Data-Driven
We believe the Edge is the next frontier. When we talk about the enterprise of the future, we see an Edge centric cloud-enabled data-driven enterprise. What that means is the cloud is moving closer to where the data is created. That’s driven by the use cases we see around us. Whether it is healthcare, manufacturing, or transportation, everything is being connected. It started with connectivity and then soon after that is the security aspect. One thing is connecting devices and apps and one thing is connecting things to the network. That’s why our Aruba platform is such a unique asset because it provides connectivity and security with AI built-in at the core.
3 Cs of the Intelligent Edge
Ultimately, it brings that cloud computing closer to actually where the data is created. We think about it as an integrated solution. Obviously, we need to provide customers the tools to be able to protect themselves and be compliant with the new regulatory policies being put in place, like for example, GPI in Europe. We are really focused on that and we actually believe we have one of the best solutions at the Edge today. The data continues to outpace the compute capacity and actually, 75 percent of that data is created at the Edge. That’s very exciting and that’s why I’m bullish about these Edge compute capabilities that the customers need going forward. It’s just physics.
AI is a Big Opportunity for Us
Two years from now we’re going to create twice the amount of data that we created in our entire human history. That data needs to be stored, it needs to be managed, it needs to be compliant, and most importantly, business outcome has to be derived. That’s why we see the need to bring that cloud compute closer to where the data is in a different form factor. We see AI as a big opportunity for us and all integrated with connectivity and security.
Customers are telling us that they are accelerating the digital transformation. We have a saying that the future belongs to the fast. People who can extract insights from the data faster are going to continue to win. We are very bullish about it because we have one of the best portfolios we ever had and our innovation is second to none.
The US is Ahead with 5G
5G is going to be an exciting opportunity for us. The US is ahead and is going to be one of the first countries, if not the first country together with Japan and others, to roll out 5G. We already see evidence of that. Our opportunity with 5G is to provide customers an integrated experience. 5G is a type of connectivity, but it is not the only type of connectivity. You are talking about 5G, talking about wire connectivity, you talk about wired network connectivity or wireless connectivity.
What customers are asking us is give me one integrated experience with one security control play. That’s where Aruba fits perfectly in that we’re going to provide a cloud-based solution that integrates 5G into that experience.
President Donald Trump tweeted his support today for the US to be the leader in 5G, “and even 6G.”
“I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible,” tweeted the President. “It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind on something that is so obviously the future.”
Trump added: “I want the United States to win through competition, not by blocking out currently more advanced technologies. We must always be the leader in everything we do, especially when it comes to the very exciting world of technology!”
The report by the Senate Small Business Committee is a response to China’s “Made in China 2025” strategic plan. In that plan, the Chinese lay out their strategy for becoming the world technology leader.
Twitter Embeds:
I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind on………
….something that is so obviously the future. I want the United States to win through competition, not by blocking out currently more advanced technologies. We must always be the leader in everything we do, especially when it comes to the very exciting world of technology!
The US is in competition with China for 5G domination says James Jones, former Obama National Security Advisor. Jones says that 5G is the most disruptive technology to come our way this century, but we are way behind China in 5G marketing. He says that the choice is clear for our friends and allies. “You can either go for the cheap, seductive, but extremely vulnerable system that will take all of your privacy, your intellectual properties, and your secrets back to Beijing, or you can invest a little bit more money and have a more secure society.
He says that the choice is clear for our friends and allies. “You can either go for the cheap, seductive, but extremely vulnerable system that will take all of your privacy, your intellectual properties, and your secrets back to Beijing, or you can invest a little bit more money and have a more secure society.
The US is in Competition with China for 5G Domination
The 5G issue is the most disruptive technology that’s going to come our way probably in this century. 4G and 3G were evolutionary, 5G is transformative. Not just about military either. I’m talking about all aspects of our society, from banking to the medical field, and to the smart cities that we have ambitions for. You can’t have a smart city if you don’t have a secure network.
The competition is China. Whoever wins this competition is going to be a very dominant player on the globe. China has a very seductive appealing message. We’re cheap. We’re reliable. We don’t put strings on our technology. What they don’t say is, we don’t share our technology. We don’t train you on our technology. We don’t give you the keys. We don’t give you the encryption. And we won’t partner with your domestic countries.
You Cannot Have Both Chinese 5G and US 5G
The US technology that we’re developing will do just the opposite of that. It will make us more secure. It will enable our individual citizens to have a private secure cellphone. It will enable our corporations to have protection of their intellectual properties. It will enable our governments to be more secure. In an organization like NATO, you cannot have a Chinese system and a US system interface.
So the choices for our friends and allies are clear, you can either go for the cheap, seductive, but extremely vulnerable system that will take all of your privacy, your intellectual properties, and your secrets back to Beijing, or you can invest a little bit more money and have a more secure society.
I think in the marketing of it we are behind. One of the reasons the Chinese system is cheap is because it’s subsidized. Our government is now waking up I think and we’re seeing more pronouncements from our leaders, which is very good. The private sector is doing quite well. I think our technological advance is very impressive. We’re working on systems that are impenetrable. In other words, it can’t be hacked and can’t be reverse engineered. Those are the two things that will assure our technical dominance in the future.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson defended AT&T’s aggressive 5G E marketing following the filing of a lawsuit by Sprint. During the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, some of their competitors criticized them, saying AT&T is “slapping 5G stickers” on upgraded 4G phones.
Stephenson says that 5G Evolution (5G E), represents new technology that they are deploying that delivers radical increases in speed and performance on their network.
Description of 5G Evolution on AT&T website.
Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T, defends their 5G E marketing amid a lawsuit filing by Sprint in an interview with CNBC:
It’s an Evolutionary Step to 5G
It’ll play itself out obviously. We feel very comfortable with how we’ve characterized the new service that we’re launching. What we do is go into a market and we turn up a significant block of spectrum, wireless airways that we own. I mean it’s rather dramatic. We’re deploying new technology that I won’t go into the details of it, but when we go into a market and we turn up this technology and we light up this spectrum our customers are seeing radical increases in speed and performance on the network.
This is a step that’s required to get to ultimate 5G. It’s an evolutionary step to 5G, a critical step. So we are characterizing this 5G E, 5G Evolution. We’ve obviously done our homework. We’ve done a lot of work around how we characterize this. We’re being very clear with our customers that this is an evolutionary step.
It’s Not a Play Everybody Can Run
But this is a dramatic step-change improvement in what the customers experience where we turn this up. I fully understand why our competitors might be upset with this. It’s not a play everybody can run. It’s a play that we really like. It’s a play that’s going to differentiate us in the marketplace as we begin to roll this out over the course of this year.
There will be real-time enterprise solutions based on 5G, says Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. He predicts that this is a way to transform an enterprise. Vestberg also says that 5G will continue to aggressively roll out this year and that there will be a Motorola and Samsung 5G phone possibly released within the next six months.
Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, discussed on Fox Business at Davos 2019 the advent of 5G and how it will spark massive innovation and technological change:
5G Will Transform the Enterprise
With business, we are already global as well as with our media strategy with our Yahoo brands, etc. With the consumer, we are only in the US and that is where we are focusing right now. With the 5G coming up that’s, of course, opening up new markets for us that we hadn’t had before. When it comes to wireless consumption for consumers there’s not so much more growth to do. What we see with 5G are so many other use cases. Consumers get the best service now and with 5G they will get even better service than they have today.
We also have 5G Home which is a market that we don’t address today. Then, of course, there will be real-time enterprise solutions based on 5G. This is a way to transform an enterprise. It can be the production floor or a business campus that you transform with 5G. We see other use cases beyond consumers when we go to 5G. We will always take care of our consumers. We are the best network and we have the best performance and that will continue as well.
5G Phones Coming Very Soon
5G phones are coming soon. I have already announced that we will have two 5G phones coming out this year, preferably in the first half of the year. They will be from Motorola and Samsung. What it’s going to mean for consumers is when we have the 5G Ultra Wideband you are going to have 10X throughput and speeds.
I’m sure you are wondering about new use cases with 5G. Remember when 4G came, we didn’t know. I can tell you that when there are so many people on 5G phones people are going to innovate new services with the speed, the throughput, and the low latency. Our plan is to work with the different developers using our platform or our network service in order to get the innovation on top of it. That’s going to create a lot of new services.
5G Home Launching in More Markets
The home service has been predominantly a cable or fiber service. Nowadays, we can see that you can also do that with wireless. You can get it quicker and we also see an increase in cord cutting. We want to give optionality to our customers. If they want a wireless offering they should be able to have that as well.
We see that as a good opportunity. We already launched 5G Home last year in four markets and this year we want to launch in more markets.
Every business has been disrupted by the digital transformation, says Hewlett Packard Enterprise President and CEO Antonio Neri. With that disruption is an explosion of valuable data. “That data has value,” says Neri. “Enterprises are looking to extract that value much faster than ever before because people who can get inside faster will win. We see that as a massive opportunity.”
Antonio Neri, President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, discussed how the explosion of data, especially with the advent of 5G, is causing companies to invest in new technologies like AI and machine learning in order to extract maximum value from their data. Neri was interviewed by Fox Business at Davos 2019:
Extracting Value From Data is a Massive Opportunity
We live in an incredible time. Every business has been disrupted by the digital transformation. Occuring with that disruption is the explosion of the data we are creating. You just made a comment that data is the new oil. We say that data is the new currency. That data has value. Enterprises are looking to extract that value much faster than ever before because people who can get inside faster will win. We see that as a massive opportunity.
We are coming out of 2018 which was very strong. We saw an increase in spend in IT which was driven by security, more compute capacity, as well as storage capacity around this data. Also, we see the spend moving in a different direction. For example, new technologies like AI and machine learning to extract the value of the data. We see good momentum. Obviously, we see some signals for a little bit of slowdown. However, a little bit of slowdown doesn’t mean everything is going to stop. It’s actually still very strong.
Companies Are Digitizing Their Enterprises
I see companies putting more money into deploying new architectures like cloud and mobility. We live in a mobile-first approach. Companies are digitizing their enterprises making their enterprises much more efficient with this new technology.
Basically, they are moving faster than ever before. So we are actually very optimistic about the future. That data will continue to outpace the compute power which means that money will be spent in catching up with that need to process all of that data in real-time.
5G Accelerating the Digital Transformation of Every Industry
There’s obviously going to be a big investment in the telecommunications space to lay all this infrastructure. 5G actually favors the movement of data which means it is going to accelerate this transition and digital transformation of every industry. Last year at this event we talked about the Industrial Revolution 4.0. 5G will enable that because everything will be connected, everything will ingest data, and everything will process data.
We are very optimistic about the future of spending and the transformation of the business using this new technology. We think we are well positioned for the future and I think we have the portfolio to compete and win.
Extracting Value From Data is a Massive Opportunity, Says HPE President
The advent of 5G is a big reason OpenX has decided to move to Google Cloud Platform, says OpenX CEO Timothy Cadogan. “When consumers start to move to 5G on their phones and have a very rapid experience, the advertising experience needs to be incredibly compelling,” says Cadogan. “We wanted to make sure that we could run on infrastructure there. That’s why we wanted to move to the public cloud.”
“Marketing has evolved significantly over recent years, and the old way of operating is no longer sustainable,” said Cadogan. “As we look at the programmatic market today, we see a sector that has experienced massive growth and adoption, but at the same time has stalled in its ability to deliver real innovation for marketers and publishers. We believe it is time to take a completely fresh look at the market and place a major bet on building the infrastructure necessary to drive the next wave of innovation.”
The company says that prior to 2019, almost one-quarter of the OpenX tech workforce was dedicated to maintaining legacy infrastructure. They say that the transition to Google Cloud Platform will free resources to focus on new growth areas for the company, such as people-based marketing, video, and CTV.
“Both OpenX and Google Cloud are dedicated to helping customers achieve their goals with cutting-edge technology,” says Chris Klayko, Managing Director, Americas, Google Cloud. “This collaboration will allow for continued innovation leveraging both OpenX’s Exchange Platform and Google Cloud’s commitment to performance, collaboration, and big data optimization at scale.”
Timothy Cadogan, CEO of OpenX, discussed why OpenX is moving its platform to Google Cloud Platform on Bloomberg Technology:
We Process Over a Trillion Transactions a Day
We run one of the largest advertising exchanges which means we process over a trillion transactions a day. The volume that we’re working with is huge. As we started to think about all of the new innovation we want to bring to the market over the next couple of years we realized that’s going to require even more computing power. We also need that computing power to be extremely efficient.
We started to map out a path to move to the public cloud, which is Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Amazon (AWS). We really wanted to focus on a system that would give us an incredible amount of scale and enable us to innovate at a rate that would really make a difference in the industry. We didn’t want to have to continue to work on a lot of the maintenance of our own infrastructure that we had to do with our own servers.
An example of the importance of this is moving to 5G. When consumers start to move to 5G on their phones and have a very rapid experience, the advertising experience needs to be incredibly compelling. We wanted to make sure that we could run on infrastructure there. That’s why we wanted to move to the public cloud.
With Google, what you have is really the largest advertising infrastructure in the world and they do a lot of the foundational work that we can build on top of.
The CEO of Cisco says that last year they blocked seven trillion cybersecurity threats or about 20 billion per day. He says that by and large cybersecurity organizations inside of their customers are very good. But they only have to be right once, so it’s a constant ongoing battle.
Last Year We Blocked 7 Trillion Cybersecurity Threats
Last year we blocked seven trillion threats on behalf of our customers. That’s 20 billion a day. The problem is the adversary only has to be right once. We have to be right all the time. It’s the only part of our business where we have to think about an active adversary. That’s not how we think about other parts of our business.
By and large, when you look at the cybersecurity organizations inside of our customers they’re very good. But again, they only have to be right once, so it’s just a constant ongoing battle.
Solving Security Issues Deep Within Network Infrastructure
Our growth is primarily driven by organic growth. We are in a unique position as a company that’s been around for 34 years. Our core franchises are actually growth engines for the company. Whereas a lot of companies of our age they would be looking at their core franchises as the profit pools that you would invest in other businesses.
We have done some of that but we are seeing strong growth in the core franchises that we build. This is because in order to solve the security issues you have to do it deep within the network infrastructure. We are rebuilding and rearchitecting networks for customers all around the world in order to do this.
Technology is at the Heart of What Every Entity is Doing
The things that we do are the digital nervous system for the economy. Companies today realize that technology is actually defining their future strategies. Technology is not an optional cost center anymore. It really is at the heart of what every entity is doing around the world.
Technology is at a different place today relative to the strategic value to our customers. It’s been strategic, but it literally is at the heart of everything they are trying to drive now.
Technology That We’ve Build Has Created a Flat World
What we do is create this flat world that we live in. Fundamentally the technology that we’ve built over the last 30 years has created a flat world. Now we find ourselves with lots of conflicts around the world. The geopolitical dynamics are clearly complicated for all of us. Countries are just trying to find out how to deal with this technology change that is occurring so rapidly.
Frankly, it’s very difficult because governments around the world don’t have the expertise necessarily inside the government to even be able to regulate or determine what they should do. What that leads us to are very binary decisions. It’s difficult to understand how to do it surgically so I have to do it with brute force.
5G Buildout is Critical to Every Countries Future
Regarding the China trade issue, there are aspects of intellectual property. There are aspects of trade deficits. There are aspects of the view that this 5G buildout is critical to every countries future and there is this competitive race going on around the world. I this it is a bit of all of that.
My hope is we can get to a place where we can all move forward in a way that lifts the global economy again and actually allows us to begin to take advantage of some of the technology. What it can do, not only for business but candidly we are at a point in time where technology can help solve some of the biggest problems in the world. That’s what we need to be focused on.
Educating Governments on How to Regulate Technology
Our business in China is a relatively small percentage of our business still. The impact (from tariffs) has been quite minimal. What we do is just be a part of the discussion. We try to bring some logic as to what needs to be done.
We are trying to help educate governments around the world as to how should they think about regulating this technology. How should they think about data privacy? What can we do to help alleviate some of the concerns and help them achieve what they are trying to achieve while not destroying the global benefit of connectivity?
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg says that 5G is much more than just your typical mobile network speed improvement. 5G is a transformative technology that will power the Fourth Industrial Revolution and dramatically change society in the process. Like the three Industrial Revolution’s before this one, the innovations that are enabled by 5G are what will define this technology advancement.
Last year Verizon launched the first 5G network with 5G Home. There is so much to come from 5G this year and the years to come. 5G will change everything. The pace of technology change that we have seen in the last decade has been fast. The only thing we know for sure is that the pace of change is going to be faster in the future. We are going to see technology changes that are going to transform people, businesses, and society.
We are facing multiple challenges on this earth, our daily work life, things around us, climate change, and we are heading into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Think about all of these challenges and the Fourth Industrial Revolution together with 5G. Together with all the new technology acronyms like VR, AR, AI, and more. All of that together is really what we are talking about when it comes to the technology change that is inevitable that we are going to see in the future.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution Will Be Built on 5G
For us here we are on the cloud. It’s really to see that we are using this change and shape it in a direction that is actually transforming and doing good. The next area of technology advancement is going to be built on 5G. Most importantly, this is a different industrial revolution. The first one was the steam engine. The second one was electricity and the third one was digitization. All of them have a general purpose technology as a base. Then you innovated tremendously on it.
The steam engine, of course, on steamboats connecting continents, trade resulting. Electricity changed everything. Then of course, with digitalization that brought out all the PC computers, the internet and all of that. These were enormous transformations. The general technology for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is actually the total connectivity that 5G can bring. That’s what I see as a huge opportunity for all of us and our society to use in the next era of technology transformation.
5G is a Quantum Leap Compared to 4G
So what is 5G? 5G is a promise of so much than just an increase in wireless technology. From the beginning we had the 1G, the 2G, the 3G, and then the 4G. They were sort of leaps of differences when it comes to speed and throughput. When we think about 5G we think about 10 gigabits per second for throughput. We think about 10x improvement in latency. We think about 1,000 times more data volume to the network. It’s just radically different. It’s a quantum leap compared to 4G.
We have already done some real type of examples. We had an Indianapolis 500 driver that had blacked out windows driving extremely fast with 5G. Latency was so low you could actually drive it.
https://youtu.be/Dw2GT95Vyxc
Those type of things require innovation. Innovation requires a lot of different people and constituencies working with us. When I think about technology I also think a lot about how that can do good for our society. We are entering an era of more challenging things around the world and technology is one of the most important things that can transform it and make it sustainable. At Verizon, we call that human ability. We coined that word because we think about the human in the middle of technology to do right.
The Eight Currencies of 5G
When I think about 5G one of the big differences when we started developing 5G it was thought about giving a new type of solution for industry and for society. Ultimately consumers will have it. The capabilities of earlier wireless technology usually have speed and throughput assets as a different capability. We have eight capabilities in 5G. I call them the eight currencies.
The Eight Currencies of 5G
With the eight currencies of 5G you can do a service on them, you can monetize on them, you can build on them. This is very different than any previous wireless technology. There’s the Peak Data Rate and Mobile Data Volume, but it’s also the Mobility. It’s also how many Connected Devices that you can have. It’s Energy Efficiency and Service Deployment. And then, of course, it’s Reliability and Latency. There are eight currencies that 5G can give to the user. Whether it’s a device, a person, or an industry, that depends on how we are going to innovate on that.
It’s important that we have already started on a journey. Verizon started years ago to start building a network because you need a lot of fiber and you need a lot of dense networks to build these eight currencies. You need real estate to do mobile edge compute. Not only that you need spectrum. In some cases you need millimeter wave spectrum that is giving you enormous throughput and bandwidth.
Peak Rate and Thoughput
What I’m excited about is what innovation can we do on this currency? Let’s talk about the currencies that we have here. The Peak Rate and the Throughput are extremely important when it comes to doing things with speed. The first thing that comes to mind is how quickly can you download a movie on 5G. Today on 4G it takes 3 to 4 minutes with a 90-minute movie. It’s going to take you 10 seconds when you have ultra-wideband. So that’s a use case, but that’s really to limit yourself with what you can do with it.
There’s so much more that you can do when you have that type of Speed and Throughput. It’s a quantum leap compared to what we have today. It’s about rethinking how you can use the increased speed and throughput when you talk about speed at 10 gigabits per second and throughput probably 1000 times more than today. I’m excited about those two currencies, but there are other currencies.
Mobility and Connected Devices
Two other currencies are Mobility and Connected Devices. Mobility or mobile connections, that’s how it’s actually measured in speed. In a 4G network today you can basically capture a radio signal up to 350 kilometers per hour. In 5G it’s roughly 500 kilometers per hour. Why does that matter? Think about high speed trains. Think about things that are going to move extremely fast in the future that are going to bring efficient transportation. With 5G you can captures that.
When it comes to IoT and Connected Devices, one of the limitations of wireless technology today is that you can roughly connect 100,000 devices per square kilometer with 4G. With 5G you can do 1 million. Suddenly you can have massive IoT in order to transform big cities, industry, or behaviours where we need to address challenges that we have today. These two currencies are also very different and address different business cases.
Service Deployment and Energy Efficiency
Let’s talk about two other currencies or capabilities, Service Deployment and Energy Efficiency. Service Deployment is a little hard to explain, but what it’s really about if flexible service deployment where you can match your software with specific customer needs. Think about if you want to do a virtual classroom with five different cities and you want them to have the same software. Today on the 4G network that would take me weeks or even months.
The promise of 5G is that can go down to minutes where we can spin the new service based on the software demands of the customer. These are enormous changes. We just need to think how can we innovate on that?
Now there is of course Energy Efficiency. Here the world is facing the challenges of climate change and our industry needs to think about all of the equipment we are using and that everything we are using is improving how much CO2 we are doing. There are a lot of things coming out but we just need to continue and we need to do that collectively.
5G is promising to reduce up to 90 percent of the power usage that we have with 4G. This is about making the Fourth Industrial Revolution a positive change. The first and second industrial revolutions produced a lot of CO2 emissions because they were the steam engines and electricity. Here we have a chance together to actually power and uniquely address those two as well.
Latency and Reliability
The last two currencies are Latency and Reliability. On the latency side today in the mobile networks we can get to 100 milliseconds or 50 milliseconds. In 5G we will go down to 10 milliseconds. Why is that important? Everything realtime, AR, VR, needs to come down to at least 20 milliseconds in order to avoid delays. There are so many other use cases you can do as well.
Latency and Reliability are very important in the network. It comes down to how we can innovate. It’s just so dramatic how much difference with what you can do things with 5G than with the previous technology cycles.
Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri says that the company will start to launch 5G in 2019 and 2020 starting with the United States followed by Japan, South Korea, and China. He says that the rollouts have already begun with actual 5G launches next year.
Rajeev Suri, President, and CEO of Nokia discussed the company’s 5G rollout on CNBC:
5G Will Start to Launch in 2019 and 2020
It is starting to really move. We expect that 5G will start to launch in 2019 and 2020. We are starting here in the US which is the first market, Japan, South Korea, and China will come next during 2019. The rollouts have already begun with 5G and the launches next year.
We are a leader in the networks business and we acquired Alcatel-Lucent back in 2016. The first phase of the merger was all about elimination of duplication. Now we are in the second phase which is about optimizing the new company for lean as we get into 5G. There is some duplication, so we will cut legacy R&D, we will cut some real estate, overhead, and some areas in IT. So it’s still a little bit of duplication, elimination, and then optimization.
We’ve Got Mitigation Plans Around Tariffs
We have a global supply chain and we’ve got mitigation plans around what happens with the tariffs. Having said that, I don’t think we are seeing an issue on the demand side. We do see some issue on the cost side, but it’s not meaningful for us, not meaningful this year. It’s going to be a little bit of headwind next year but we know how to get through it.
Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri says that 5G is moving very fast and will have massive benefits for consumers. Suri also believes that Nokia will see benefits from the 5G rollout because of their end-to-end portfolio.
“Our strategy is to benefit from the end-to-end portfolio that we have which is going to be critical to 5G because 5G is not just a step change from 4G, it is not just a radio technology,” Suri noted. “It is a change of the end-to-end architecture.”
Rajeev Suri, Nokia President, and CEO discussed 5G and how it will impact Nokia in an interview this morning:
5G is Moving Very Fast
5G is moving very fast. It started in the U.S. in this second half. After that, we will see activity in South Korea, Japan, and China during next year, also Europe at the back end of next year, some Middle Eastern countries and also Nordic and Scandinavia is starting to happen in 2019.
Our Strength is Our End-To-End Portfolio
Our strength is that we have an end-to-end portfolio. We are the only ones that have an end-to-end portfolio at scare and are operating in all countries. We did talk about some pricing pressure in regards to some customer situations in Q2 that have already reflected in our Q3 numbers. Overall, the pricing or the competitive intensity have not worsened or changed in the last few quarters. It is somewhat stable.
Our End-To-End Portfolio is Going to be Critical to 5G
Our strategy is to benefit from the end-to-end portfolio that we have which is going to be critical to 5G because 5G is not just a step change from 4G, it is not just a radio technology. It is a change of the end-to-end architecture.
First, it’s time for us to benefit from our end-to-end portfolio after the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent. Second, we have a strong growth rival in enterprise and we’ve established a new enterprise business group and we’ve been growing at 18 percent a year in that business. Of course, with some of this software where we’ve had good growth in the quarter at 4 percent, which is a stand-alone software business at scale. For us it’s all about driving this end-to-end, benefitting from 5G as well as enterprise and software. Our distinction, first of all, is the installed base and second is this end-to-end portfolio.
5G is Going to Have Massive Benefits
5G is going to have massive benefits, is going to have a lower cost per bit, and huge capacities for consumers. It’s going to have reliability in performance to enable all kinds of enterprise users; manufacturing, ports, transportation, energy sector, and a lot more. We’ve been getting a lot of technical first in setting the pace with that which is the benefit of our end-to-end portfolio.
Cutting €700 Million in Expenses
We believe the ones that win in this industry discipline cost management is a key competitive advantage. We are trying to get ahead of the curve and we will not slow the pace of change. We haven’t talked about the magnitude of the actual headcount numbers but we have said it’s €700 million. We have to work on headcount numbers country by country. Some of it is headcount and some of it is digitalization and automation to drive productivity.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg says that 5G wireless to the home is “a revolution” while announcing the first active 5G in homes in the world. Two weeks ago Verizon started taking orders in Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento and the response has been massive.
Fast wireless to the home has long been a goal of Verizon that is likely to spur on cable cutters since OTT programming is readily available and consumers won’t need to buy internet from the cable companies.
Vesterberg also says that they are in talks with many enterprise companies regarding their use of 5G which could truly make the IoT come to life.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg made discussed the 5G rollout on Bloomberg:
Verizon Launches 5G to the Home in 4 Cities
Verizon has worked for a long time with 5G and there are many use cases. The first use case is active 5G in the home. Instead of having fiber to the home we’ll have wireless to the home. It’s just a revolution as to what you can do with wireless. We announced 5G two weeks ago that you can order it and today we are going to make the first customers in the world, in the four cities, get 5G in the home. It’s an exciting time for us.
Many things are happening in 5G. We are doing home, there’s definitely going to be a lot of enterprise solutions, IoT and all of that. Of course, we as consumers are going to get the 5G in smartphones in 2019 which is going to be a totally new experience.
5G in the Home Reduces Latency
There are so many facets of 5G compared to 3G and 4G where basically throughput and speed were the only two things you could trade on. There are so many more things you can do with it including reducing latency. That’s why we started 5G with the home because we think that is a totally new market for us where we can address our customers.
We’ve had a massive interest but we do this limited, there are only four cities, but I can tell you there are so many people coming in and checking if their zip code is included, so we are starting it a little bit small and when we have established a global standard of 5G we want to roll it out to the masses throughout the country.
Enterprise Use of 5G is Very Important.
Enterprise is very important and of course, when it comes to 5G you can think about the real-time enterprise, you can take away all of the cords. We’re already talking to many enterprises and what use cases they see from 5G.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai recently talked about the upcoming White House meeting which Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are all expected to attend. The FCC Chairman says that it’s vital that we eliminate the local regulatory hurdles that are currently preventing 5G from being implemented in the US.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai via CNBC’s Squawk on the Street:
We Want America to Lead the World in 5G
We want America to lead the world in 5G just as we led the world in 4G. That, of course, takes private sector initiative but also requires government to set the stage in terms of getting the tools for the industry to use out there into the marketplace.
First, we want to outline a cross-government strategy, not just the FCC, but the entire Trump Administration is going to be on the same page in terms of asserting US leadership in 5g. We hope to learn from the industry is what are some of the necessary building blocks for 5g? We want America to be the home for innovation and investment for the next generation of wireless connectivity. We need to know what policies are needed in order to promote US leadership and I’m hoping it’ll be a very productive exchange.
I think there’s a strong case for optimism about it being sooner. We already see some of the nation’s biggest companies doing 5G trials and cities like Indianapolis. We see a lot of investment and innovation in some of the tech sectors but there’s also a reason to be concerned because we see a lot of the regulatory barriers to 5G deployment in terms of the infrastructure that is needed to get out there into the marketplace.
Local Government Regulations and Fees Holding Back 5G
These regulations are holding back the case for a 5G deployment. That’s part of the reason why the FCC has been focused on what I call our 5G Fast Plan – Facilitating America’s Superiority in 5G Technology. If we get the spectrum out there, incentivize infrastructure deployment, and modernize our regulations, I’m confident that we can hasten the day when Americans can turn to 5G just as they’ve come to rely on 4G.
We want to set the table so that every company, big and small, and regardless of where they happen to be trying to put deploy these 5G services, will be able to do so at scale in order to serve American consumers.
By far the biggest barrier is the domestic regulatory barriers that we face. For example, it takes one to two hours to install a small cell on a utility pole that’s necessary for 5G. In some cases, it can take a year or two years to get the regulatory approval for deploying that small cell. That by far is one of the greatest barriers to getting the wide-scale deployment of 5G technologies in the future.
Additionally, the spectrum that is necessary to get out into the marketplace has been a barrier. We’ve been working aggressively to fix that and we’ve already teed-up over the next year or so more spectrum for the commercial sector use then all of the mobile broadband providers today hold combined. I think those building blocks domestically are much more important for 5G in order to be deployed at scale.
We Don’t Want to Cede the Mantel of Wireless Leadership to China
China saw the success that the United States had in 4G and they want to claim that success for themselves. When it comes to 5G we want the United States to be the haven for innovation and investment not just out of some parochial concern but because we truly believe in a free and open Internet and the power of innovation and in the importance of the private sector leading this revolution. We think that this market-based approach is a superior one.
We, of course, don’t want to cede the mantle of wireless leadership to any other country and our concern is that if China is the first mover in 5G that they will be able to draw some of that capital, some of that talent, and ultimately some of that innovation to their shores.
I think about some of the applications here in terms of precision agriculture and telemedicine and the Internet of Things and all kinds of other applications we can’t even conceive today. All that could be on tap if we make the right decisions here in the United States and I think that’s going to be a boon for American consumers and for our Internet economy.
Samsung says it has set a 5G speed record at 7.5Gbps, which is over thirty times faster than 4G LTE. The company has deemed this a major milestone in the development of 5G.
7.5Gbps is equivalent to 940MB per second, which is the fastest-ever 5G data transmission rate while in a stationary environment, Samsung says. The company also claims the first-ever uninterrupted 1.2 Gbps (50MB per second) 5G connection in a mobile environment while traveling at over 100km/h.
“We will continue to build upon these milestones and develop advanced technologies that contribute to the 5G standard,” said ChangYeong Kim, Head of DMC R&D Center at Samsung Electronics. “In addition to leveraging our own global R&D capabilities, we will also continue to cooperate with other industry leaders and research centers across the world. Whether you are talking about mobile devices, the cloud, or the Internet of Things, the demand for 5G telecommunications standard and its supporting technologies will continue to grow.”
The new milestones were a seven-fold increase over test results from May of last year, when Samsung says it became the first to achieve 1Gbps over a 28GHz 5G network.
Samsung says it has continued to engage others in the industry in efforts to steer the direction of of 5G development.
“Most recently, Samsung proposed the 5G Rainbow to other industry members,” the company says. “The 5G Rainbow identified seven core technical pillars of 5G technology that would truly ensure a differentiated 5G user experience. These pillars are maximum data rate, spectral efficiency, speed of mobility, data transmission rate at the cell boundary, the number of simultaneous connections, communication delays, and cost. In order to address these technical needs, Samsung has already been developing a diverse range of key technologies, such as transmission technologies for high frequency bands, multiple access schemes and low latency networks.”
The work Samsung is doing is impressive for sure, though as others have pointed out, it could lead to higher costs for customers in the long run.
The 5th generation of WiFi routers is here with the newly introduced Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H wireless router and WLI-H4-D1300 wireless media bridge. The new Router and bridge offer speeds up to three times faster than 802.11n and are fully backward compatible for legacy devices to make it easier for users to adopt the new technology.
The 802.11ac Router operates in the 5 GHz spectrum and offers transfer speeds up to 1300 Mbps. With the super high speeds, Buffalo is hoping that the next generation of tablets and portable devices will feature the technology which will dramatically reduce battery usage due to increased download speeds.
“5G WiFi will improve the HD video streaming experience with its higher speeds, enhanced range and increased reliability,” said Michael Hurlston, Broadcom’s SVP and GM of the Wireless Combo Connectivity line of business. “Buffalo Technology’s products using Broadcom’s chipsets give consumers the fastest, most robust wireless networking solutions available.”
The router is now available at select retailers and goes for $189.99 on newegg.com. This is pricey, but with the reality that more and more homes have refrigerators and microwaves that are connected to the internet, the need for a high capacity router becomes more and more necessary.
