Will Wi-Fi cost more than 5G connections?

This seems to subvert common sense!

Recently, Ericsson released the white paper "5G and Wi-Fi", pointing out that in the future, the two major wireless technologies, 5G and Wi-Fi6, will play an important role in indoor connections, and compared the advantages and disadvantages of the two.

It is worth noting that the white paper also compares the TCO of Wi-Fi and cellular networks, pointing out that the cost of Wi-Fi connection is higher than that of cellular networks, and concludes that "5G will play a more important role in future connection scenarios."

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Each has its own advantages

Advantages of 5G:

• Working in operator-licensed spectrum provides better reliability and predictability to meet mission-critical communication needs.
• 5G supports eMBB, mMTC (massive machine type communications), Critical IoT (mission-critical IoT) and industrial TSN, supporting a wider range of use cases than Wi-Fi.
• 5G can support end-to-end QoS differentiation based on a single network.
• 5G has a rigorous equipment interoperability testing and certification process.
• 5G can also offload non-mission-critical traffic through unlicensed spectrum (NR-U).
• 5G supports full mobility and can provide wide-area coverage and local coverage, while Wi-Fi 6 is limited to local coverage and can only support limited mobility.
• 5G has end-to-end specifications covering the complete system architecture, while Wi-Fi is primarily limited to Layer 1 and Layer 2.
• 5G supports low, medium and high frequency bands. It can achieve good coverage through low and medium frequency bands, and can also supplement capacity requirements through millimeter wave high frequency bands, as well as achieve lower air interface latency and higher-precision indoor positioning. However, Wi-Fi 6 is limited to supporting medium frequency bands and has limited supported bandwidth.
• Unlike Wi-Fi 6, 5G provides end-to-end security and global identity management.

Advantages of Wi-Fi 6:

• Wi-Fi 6 modems are cheaper than 5G modems.
• Easier deployment
• Some operating systems, like iOS 13, prefer Wi-Fi because the phone always automatically connects to nearby Wi-Fi networks instead of cellular networks.
• Wi-Fi 6 (including NR-U) operates in unlicensed spectrum, is not subject to spectrum licensing restrictions, and is available to everyone.

TCO Comparison

This article takes the wireless network deployment in a warehouse as an example to compare the TCO costs of Wi-Fi 5 and 4G networks.

The warehouse covers an area of ​​250,000 square feet and connects a total of 1,000 devices (with an average throughput of 80Mbps). The main use case is to enable intelligent robots to automatically pick and move goods based on a low-latency, high-bandwidth network.

If Wi-Fi 5 technology is used, the warehouse needs to deploy 160 Wi-Fi APs and 10 PoE switches; if 4G technology is used, the warehouse needs to deploy 40 Small Cells and core network-related equipment, plus installation, wiring, and post-product support, services and on-site maintenance. The report points out that the total cost per square foot of Wi-Fi is 22% higher than that of cellular networks.

In addition to the cost advantage, the article also points out that the added value brought by the two technologies is also important. Since 5G networks have higher reliability, wider coverage, better mobility, and support for more use cases than Wi-Fi, they will bring more value to enterprises in the future.

It is not difficult to see that although the article only compares the connection costs of Wi-Fi 5 and 4G, it seems to imply that with the popularization of technology, the cost of 5G connection in the future may be the same as Wi-Fi, or even lower, and operators and enterprises can obtain more benefits from 5G.

The battle between cellular networks and Wi-Fi has never stopped. As indoor scenarios become more and more important in the 5G era, this technology battle will become more intense. From the white paper, Ericsson is obviously more optimistic about 5G. However, how it will develop in the future can only be answered by the market and time.