5G is officially commercialized in seven countries. Review of network events in the first half of 2019

On June 6, 2019, my country's 5G license was officially issued, and China's 5G network was officially put into commercial use. In the past six months, the United States, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia and China have officially put 5G networks into commercial use in the first half of 2019.

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In addition to the commercial use of 5G, the major events in the first half of the year also included the launch of dual-gigabit city construction and the official entry of gigabit broadband into households. Whether it is 5G or gigabit broadband, the massive traffic brought by high-speed networks has made network reconstruction a focus.

1. 5G is officially commercialized in seven countries

2019 is the first year of 5G, and seven countries, including the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Spain, and China, have taken the lead in commercializing 5G networks. These countries that took the lead in commercializing 5G networks have one thing in common, which is their strong economy.

In the 2018 global GDP ranking of the above countries, except for the United States and China, which ranked first and second, the United Kingdom ranked fifth, South Korea ranked 11th, Spain ranked 13th, Australia ranked 14th, and Switzerland ranked 20th. All of these countries are among the top 20 in the global GDP ranking.

The strong economy means that operators in various countries have sufficient funds to build 5G networks. And they are trying to make their countries take the lead in the 5G era. Although the above countries have not yet achieved full coverage of 5G networks, the large-scale and expensive 5G network construction is gradually underway. In the 5G era, economically strong countries will make good use of this trend to stimulate domestic economic development.

2. Four major operators obtain 5G licenses

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has officially issued 5G commercial licenses to China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation.

The 5G operating frequency bands obtained by the four major operators are as follows: China Mobile obtained the 2515MHz-2675MHz and 4800MHz-4900MHz frequency bands; China Unicom obtained the 3500MHz-3600MHz; China Telecom obtained the 3400MHz-3500MHz; and China Radio and Television obtained the 700MHz frequency band.

3.5G applications spark discussion

Does 5G simply make personal terminals faster for Internet access? Related discussions are in full swing online. Just as 4G networks gave birth to a series of Internet giants such as Facebook, Google, Alibaba, and Tencent, the coverage of 5G networks is promoting the upgrading of related industries.

In order to encourage 5G-related companies to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, Shanghai has focused on building 10 5G innovation and application demonstration bases and creating 100 5G innovation and application companies. The scale of 5G-related manufacturing, software and information services, and application industries will reach 100 billion yuan respectively, achieving the goal of 300 billion yuan.

In particular, a large number of 5G-related devices will be used in application scenarios such as smart factories, industrial Internet, Internet of Vehicles, lysosomes, smart business districts, and smart ports, thereby driving the expansion of the upstream and downstream 5G industry chain. The in-depth application of 5G in various industries will create more demand and drive the development of the digital economy.

4. Gigabit broadband enters the home

5G has taken the spotlight from fixed-line broadband in the first half of 2019, and the three major operators have officially launched the Dual Gigabit City Plan this year. In addition to 5G network gigabit, home fiber broadband has also officially had gigabit broadband packages, responding to the further implementation of the national broadband speed-up and fee-reduction policy.

In the digital economy era, Internet speed is a major engine for economic development. High-speed networks will create more possibilities for economic development.

5. Upgrade network architecture to prepare for 5G

In the 5G era, the explosive growth of traffic and the massive number of access terminals pose a new challenge to the backbone network of operators. In addition to upgrading hardware performance, the three major operators even need to reconstruct the software architecture system. For example, facing the high burst traffic of 5G networks, there is currently a bottleneck in the performance of data storage and forwarding. If you want to improve the data transmission capacity, you must use a new network card to improve the forwarding capacity. In addition, the operators have also introduced AI technology and plan to build an intelligent network.

One of the biggest bottlenecks restricting the development of 5G is the network reconstruction problem. The network structure of operators still has problems. Ren Zhengfei's description is more intuitive, "It's like I have a big mouth but a small throat. I can't swallow a big piece of meat in one bite. Huawei will invest 100 billion US dollars in the future to solve the problem of network reconstruction."

6.5G base station construction boom begins

At present, Shanghai is the only city in China where the three major operators are conducting 5G field trials at the same time. In 2019, Shanghai will build more than 10,000 5G base stations, and the 5G network will cover the central urban area and key suburban areas. In addition, the first 5G railway station will also be built at Hongqiao Station to promote the implementation of industry applications.

Thanks to its sound electronic technology industry foundation, Shenzhen's Qianhai Free Trade Zone has become the first free trade zone in the country to be fully covered by 5G networks. In 2019, Shenzhen will build the first batch of 2,000 5G base stations, first covering the northern area of ​​Futian CBD. In terms of 5G ecology, it will create 5G experience areas such as smart airports and Futian subway hubs.

With Shanghai and Shenzhen as the initial key cities, Beijing and other cities across the country will set off a 5G base station construction boom in the next two to three years.

7. Satellite Internet officially enters orbit

SpaceX has been planning the Starlink internet satellite program for two years, and the first batch of 60 satellites were launched into orbit by a Falcon-9 rocket at the end of May. Each Starlink satellite weighs 227 kg and has multiple high-throughput antennas and a solar array. The satellite is also equipped with an electric propulsion engine, which is needed to lift Starlink from its descent altitude of 440km to its operating altitude of 550km.

8. WiFi 6 devices are now available

WiFi routers and terminals have been officially launched in the first half of this year. In terms of terminals, Samsung's S10 series phones have built-in wireless network cards that support WiFi6 technology; in terms of wireless routers, ASUS and NETGEAR have already sold products supporting WiFi6 on the market; in terms of commercial products, Huawei and H3C have also launched wireless AP products that support WiFi.

In October last year, the WiFi Alliance officially confirmed the sixth-generation WiFi standard, referred to as WiFi 6. The peak wireless transmission rate of WiFi 6 can reach 9.6Gbps, which is equivalent to a download speed of 1228.8MB/s. The ultra-high network speed will completely subvert our lifestyle.

9. AI and machine learning are introduced into network architecture

In order to welcome the arrival of 5G, operators need to work overtime to build 5G bearer networks. 4K video, VR, online games, etc. will make users consume more data in the 5G era. In addition, the explosion of the Internet of Things will increase the number of access devices by hundreds of times.

AI and machine learning are embedded in the 5G bearer network, without any hardware, in the form of pure software. There is no need to replace or embed hardware, as long as it is put into the bearer network and runs, real-time analysis can be performed. The combination of AI and machine learning can analyze the network through application behavior and make dynamic adjustments to the network in real time.

10. Huawei leads the world in 5G

According to data from the first half of the year, Huawei has obtained 50 5G commercial contracts and shipped more than 150,000 stations; two-thirds of the countries that have announced the commercial use of 5G networks have assisted them in building them. In terms of 5G standards, Huawei has contributed more than 18,000 proposals to 3GPP 5G standards and owns 2,160 5G SEP (standard essential) patents, ranking first in the world.

Conclusion

Whether it is 5G, fiber-optic broadband or satellite Internet, behind all network upgrades are the increase in network speed, the reconstruction and upgrade of network structure, and the new business opportunities brought by hardware equipment.