Cool down the false millimeter wave! Adhere to the road of confidence and look at the millimeter wave rationally

Last year, a manufacturer raised a very interesting topic, that is, if it does not support millimeter waves, it is not real 5G; but the actual situation is that our "fake 5G" users have exceeded 150 million, and the network scale has exceeded 600,000 base stations, basically achieving coverage of cities at the prefecture level and above; and the leader of "real 5G" is now busy turning around and copying the homework of "fake 5G".

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Why is there a distinction between real and fake millimeter wave 5G? Why does the "real 5G" copy the "fake 5G"? The question behind this is how we view millimeter waves and how we view the "stories" behind them?

First of all , millimeter wave has its own technical advantages, but no core breakthroughs. However, its core advantage lies in the rich spectrum resources, which is a gift from nature. Its technical application has not broken through the current basic theory, but relies on the innovation of engineering technology, making it seemingly optional. But in fact, what is the practical significance of this kind of application scenario innovation in exchange for investment and cost?

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In fact, as the pioneers of millimeter wave applications, why are the operators of the Lighthouse Countries making a collective shift now? We need to think carefully. What is the point of applying something that the Lighthouse Countries are beginning to lose interest in?

Secondly , we must maintain confidence in our path and not follow the crowd. Different countries and different manufacturers have chosen different technology evolution routes, which is normal. Facts have proved that our choice is correct; the more we need to do it at this time, the more we must maintain strategic focus and firmly build/apply/evolve/prosper the Sub-6GHz industry ecosystem, rather than following the crowd and taking the old path that has been falsified. Domestic operators in particular should not sit on the wrong path. For application scenarios such as the Winter Olympics, it is enough to do a technical verification and application demonstration. Thinking too much will easily give you a headache.

In this regard, I think millimeter wave is a pit dug by the Lighthouse Country for us, waiting for us to jump in. Of course, there is more than one pit. WiMAX is a pit, and we did not follow it; Verizon started a new 5G standard in an attempt to split the global 5G standard. 3GPP responded promptly and forcefully, and we jumped over this pit; millimeter wave is also a pit, but we did not fall into it. The Lighthouse Country fell into it and is now climbing out; the Starlink project is also a pit for mobile communications, and we must also remain vigilant.

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Third , we must be wary of millimeter waves becoming a tool for manufacturers to monopolize. Due to different focus points and different industrial accumulation, we are indeed much behind the beacon country in the millimeter wave industry chain. Don't say here that Xiaomi, OPPO, and OnePlus are also doing millimeter wave research and can also put millimeter waves into mobile phones. Those are all technical engineering innovations, doing work from 1 to 2. The real foundation and core of the industrial chain is work from 0 to 1. We have nothing in chips/core components, or we don't have commercialization capabilities at present. Promoting the application of millimeter waves at this time is like adding fuel to the fire, because there are too few manufacturers who can provide relatively mature solutions, especially there is only one company that can provide baseband processor-RF front-end overall solutions. Millimeter waves cannot become a weapon for individual manufacturers to monopolize the market and technological evolution.

Fourth , only when an independent and competitive industrial chain matures can millimeter wave be applied on a large scale. Aren’t the painful lessons of ZTE and Huawei enough? What is the intention of deploying millimeter wave, applying millimeter wave, and strengthening the industrial ecology and technological evolution of the beacon country? It took 30 years for China's mobile communication industry to get to where it is today step by step. What it relied on was the strategic determination after making the right choice. We should do the same for millimeter wave.