The wind is about to blow: the first large-scale commercial use of 5G

By 2018, 5G has gone from theory to reality and will be commercialized in the near future.

On December 21, 2017, the 3GPP TSG RAN plenary meeting successfully completed the formulation of the most commercially deployable 5G NR standards in Lisbon, Portugal. Operators, equipment vendors, terminal chip manufacturers and other industry partners reached a consensus to jointly accelerate the formulation of 5G NR standards and promote the global 5G industrialization process.

5G at the PyeongChang Olympics

On February 9, 2018, the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, which will open this Friday, will be the first to provide 5G application services. Users can directly experience 5G speeds at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which is also the first practical application of 5G in the world.

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The 5G service for the Winter Olympics is jointly supported by Korea Telecom, Samsung, Intel and other companies, and preparations for the Winter Olympics were made a month in advance. On January 11, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Technology of South Korea held a special meeting on 5G, with representatives from more than a dozen companies providing 5G components, equipment and services, including Korea Telecom, SK Telecom, LG U, etc.

At the conference, Yoo Young-min, Minister of Science, ICT, and Information Technology of South Korea, said the government hopes that South Korea will be the first to launch the world's first 5G service in March 2019 and deploy 5G networks earlier, which will be the foundation of Industry 4.0. The private sector is crucial for South Korea to lead the global 5G development.

South Korea has spared no effort in promoting the development of 5G. In 2018, three operators including Korea Telecom are expected to invest more than 10 trillion won (about 60.95 billion yuan) in 5G deployment.

Seeing that our neighbors are vigorously deploying 5G, China, as the second largest country in the world in terms of GDP, will certainly not lag behind.

China's 5G deployment

Just recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology finally revealed the exact news about 5G. On January 30 this year, Zhang Feng, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a press conference that 2018 is a key year for the determination of 5G standards and the development of commercial products, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will promote 5G system equipment to basically reach the pre-commercial level.

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If we really enter the 5G era, the average peak speed of users will reach 20Gb/s, and a high-definition movie can be downloaded in the blink of an eye. This ultra-high transmission speed is faster than most Wi-Fi on the market and can also solve almost all current connection problems.

The spectrum is the basic resource of wireless communication technology. In the future, the first frequency bands for global 5G will be C-band (spectrum range is 3.3GHz-4.2GHz, 4.4GHz-5.0GHz) and millimeter wave bands 26GHz/28GHz/39GHz. Before the troops move, the food and grass must be sent first. In 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the frequency use plan for 5G systems in the 3000-5000MHz frequency band (mid-band), which clearly defined the 3300-3400MHz (in principle, the upper limit is indoor use), 3400-3600MHz and 4800-5000MHz frequency bands as the working frequency bands of 5G systems.

In June 2017, my country's first 5G base station was officially opened. Although this base station was only set up for 5G field testing, it also proves that my country has embarked on the road of rapid development of 5G.

The three domestic mobile operators have also been planning for 5G for a long time. Since seven years ago, the three major operators have invested a total of US$180 billion in 5G infrastructure.

Compared with the previous investment in 4G, the current investment in 5G has more than doubled. In addition to these operators, many mobile phone manufacturers have also clarified the release schedule of their first 5G mobile phones.

But obviously these are just what China has arranged and will do in the future. We will get much more than what we see now.

The United States in Internal Conflict

As the key to the future Internet of Things, the impact of 5G is even greater than that of Watt's invention of the steam engine and Bill Gates' development of Windows. These are important events that can redivide the global economic sectors.

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A relevant survey agency in the United States predicts that by 2035, 5G will create $12.3 trillion in economic output worldwide, equivalent to the total annual expenditure of all American consumers. In addition, the development of 5G will also greatly improve the overall employment environment in China. The "2018 Global Employment and Social Outlook" report released by the International Labor Organization stated that the global unemployment rate will remain at a high level of 5.6% in 2018, and the employment environment will remain poor.

Relevant analysts believe that the 5G value chain will create 22 million jobs worldwide, of which China will obtain 9.5 million jobs, the most in the world, and the United States will obtain 3.4 million jobs.

After realizing that the United States has fallen behind China in this field, in order to catch up with or even surpass China, the United States has been considering building a government-operated 5G network. Foreign media reported that relevant US departments are contacting communications companies in the United States, Europe and other Asian countries except China. A US technical official also confirmed that relevant departments are discussing countermeasures and are expected to hand them over to Trump for a decision in 6 to 8 months.

However, both the Federal Communications Commission and companies in the United States are opposed to the federal government's "nationalization" of 5G networks. The U.S. telecommunications industry group said that government involvement could slow the development of the technology.

summary

2018 is an important year for the development of 5G. China, the United States, South Korea, Japan, and the European Union will all make great strides in this field. Mobile expert Joe Madden said in an interview with Fortune magazine that in the past, Chinese manufacturers had to rely on semiconductors produced by American companies, but now China has planned to launch its own 5G semiconductors. From lagging behind to surpassing, China has taught American companies a lesson.

The importance of 5G is self-evident. It is no exaggeration to say that 5G is the future, and the development of the 5G industry is closely related to the country's destiny. In 2018, China will continue to make efforts in this field, lay a solid foundation for the upcoming era of the Internet of Things, and build a smart world where everything is connected.