Who will win the global competition for 5G?

The 5G era is getting closer and closer to us.

From the 1G era when "big brothers" were popular to the 4G era when you can watch videos on your phone, mobile communication technology has been innovating. After our lives have undergone earth-shaking changes due to this technology, vertical industries such as industry also need communication technology to upgrade. 5G came into being.

The International Organization for Standardization 3GPP has defined three major business scenarios for 5G technology: eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband) refers to high-traffic mobile broadband services such as 3D/ultra-high-definition video, which is an upgrade of user consumption traffic; mMTC (massive machine-type communications) is aimed at large-scale Internet of Things services; uRLLC (high reliability and low latency communications) is mainly represented by unmanned driving, industrial automation and other services.

Faced with such an emerging technology that can bring profound changes to society, no country wants to fall behind.

At present, governments or policy makers, telecom operators, and terminal manufacturers in various countries are working hard to promote the practical application of 5G as soon as possible. However, Rome was not built in a day, and in the process of the world moving towards 5G, problems have emerged in various countries.

Among the four regions where 5G development has attracted the most attention, namely the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and China, due to different national conditions, each country has made different progress and is facing regional difficulties.

During the four-day May Day holiday, "Shen Xiang" sorted out the 5G development status and problems in these four regions in four chapters. Now it is summarized as follows. Click the title to read the full text and understand the specific situation of each region:

"Trump says 'must win', how does the US pursue its 5G dream?"

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Trump said in a speech that "the 5G race is a race that the United States must win"

As one of the earliest countries to conduct 5G research and development, the United States has certain technical advantages. However, in terms of commercialization, economies such as China and South Korea have performed more impressively in recent years. The United States is not reconciled to getting up early but arriving late.

However, according to a report by the U.S. Wireless Communications and Internet Association (CTIA), the United States has surpassed South Korea in terms of 5G readiness over the past year, rising from third place in 2018 to tied with China for first place. This is all due to the attention of policymakers and the large-scale investment in wireless communication networks in the United States.

Under the active promotion of US President Donald Trump, the US government has opened up spectrum resources, reduced policy barriers, and reduced the cost burden of operators. All measures are aimed at paving the way for the commercial use of 5G.

All mobile network operators in the United States have also begun to trial 5G technology and equipment, scrambling to launch 5G services. As early as 2020, AT&T, one of the four major operators in the United States, hopes to cover the entire country with 5G services.

However, since the land in the United States is privately owned, this adds a lot of communication costs and procedures to the construction of 5G base stations. If the progress of infrastructure construction is delayed, the deployment of 5G networks will also be affected. This is the biggest problem in the development of 5G in the United States.

"Is Europe really lagging behind in the 5G race?"

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Five Nordic countries sign 5G cooperation agreement

Europe has two communications giants, Nokia and Ericsson, and once led the way in mobile phone technology. But in the 4G era, Europe's telecommunications industry has become increasingly weak.

With high costs on one hand and difficulties in cashing out on the other, telecom companies facing huge financial pressure are powerless to develop 5G. Coupled with the lack of favorable government policies for 5G, Europe has not made rapid progress in 5G research and development and commercialization.

At present, the five Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland), which jointly issued a 5G cooperation agreement in May last year, are the countries with the most advanced 5G development in Europe. Among them, three countries have announced that they will achieve large-scale coverage of 5G networks by the end of 2020.

As the first country in the world to auction 5G spectrum, the UK is not far behind, and operators are promoting 5G network services to multiple major cities. In addition, European countries such as France and Germany will not start the commercial process until later this year.

"The pilot projects in Japan and South Korea failed to meet expectations. Where are the pitfalls in 5G commercialization?"

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Japan to launch full 5G commercial services in 2020

As developed countries, Japan and South Korea are both in the leading echelon in 5G technology, and their smaller land areas have also enabled them to make relatively rapid progress in network deployment.

Regarding the commercial use of 5G, Japan hopes to launch stable and efficient commercial services after all infrastructure is covered, in order to catch up during the application period; South Korea wants to use the title of the first country to commercialize 5G to ensure its leading position, and then optimize services in an iterative manner.

However, these two development paths actually show that the current 5G commercial environment is not mature. Due to poor 5G network coverage, weak penetration, and unstable signals, even the existing 5G services do not provide a good experience. South Korea, which has won the title of "the world's first 5G service commercial country", is a good example. Moreover, both Japan and South Korea have to solve the problem of scale-up of communication facilities.

"Where is China's 5G lead?"

China and the United States rank first in global 5G readiness

In China, 5G has become an object of great importance at the capital, industry and national levels.

“Catch up with 3G, keep pace with 4G, and lead with 5G”, guided by this goal, China has obvious advantages in standard setting, technology research and development, base station construction and equipment development.

Among them, the advantage of base station construction capability is the most prominent. According to the forecast of CICC research report, China will build and open about 100,000 new 5G base stations in 2019, and the global number is expected to be around 300,000 to 400,000.

However, facing the unclear 5G development prospects and fierce competition, China still faces many uncertainties on its way to becoming a leader in the 5G era. Accelerating the research and development and integration of 5G technology, promoting the development and verification of business models, and achieving breakthroughs and implementation of practical applications are the three essential things that China must do to explore the future of 5G.

Overall, since the development and commercialization of 5G will take a long time, the global competition for 5G is bound to be a long-distance race, and the current lead cannot be used to determine the final victory or defeat. The real final round is in the commercial application stage.

Although South Korea and the United States have rushed to launch 5G commercial services, they can only support eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband) applications at present, and the unstable terminal performance has also led to a very poor user experience. In the 5G era, the Internet of Things, unmanned driving, and industrial Internet supported by mMTC and uRLLC are the application prospects that 5G fans hope to see.

The 5G era is indeed approaching us, but the distance is not close.