CTOs call for improved industry cooperation over 5G
A CTO Executive Forum at the 2015 International Conference on Communications (ICC) urged the whole telco industry to get better at working together to ensure the 5G standard effectively tackles the many technical challenges it will face.
The expert panel consisted of: Three UK CTO Bryn Jones; EE CTO Fotis Karonis; Telefónica UK CTO Brendan O’Reilly; Huawei wireless CTO Wen Tong; and Qualcomm wireless standards EVP Ed Tiedemann.
The first question was directed primarily at the operators, concerning their business challenges. Karonis focused on the capacity challenge as people take advantage of the increasing bandwidth being offered to them to do data intensive things like streaming video, etc. O’Reilly insisted ubiquitous coverage is key, citing the way in which the UK industry cooperated in order to ensure coverage at the 2012 London Olympics was up to the job. Jones asked about how best to achieve this with finite spectrum.
Collaboration was the recurring theme when the panel discussed how best to address these challenges as the industry looks to define 5G technologies, with Karonis insisting the solutions need to be embedded into the architecture of vendor ecosystems. Jones suggested better interference management is key to improving spectral efficiency and Tiedemann noted that Qualcomm has been introducing a lot of that kind of technology, but warned that is comes at an energy consumption cost. Tong agreed that we need to “get back to basics” and prioritise spectral efficiency. Other key areas suggested included virtualization and small cells, with SON (self-optimizing networks) tech taking on increasing importance.
The operators lamented the difficult position they’re in where their customers constantly ask for more but are reluctant to pay extra for that. “People are using more but are not willing to pay more,” said Jones and O’Reilly added: “We are treated by our customers as a utility; the whole industry needs to have a common objective for 2020.”
There seemed to be some underlying frustration on the part of the operators, who as ever lamented the cost of infrastructure and their dwindling margins, that vendors either don’t fully understand their challenges or just need to do better at helping out with them. With things like virtualization and hetnets likely to be cornerstones of 5G, it will only work if the whole industry works together.
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I love the quote “operators lamented the difficult position they’re in where their customers constantly ask for more but are reluctant to pay extra for that”. They want us to pay for infrastructure, so that they can continue to charge us? Are they serious? How about this, people pay for the infrastructure and maintenance, but then get to use it for free. That sounds fair to me. If that doesn’t work for them, they can dip into their own profits to invest in upgrading their infrastructure themselves.
I had worked in the ran o&m area for over 24 years and have seen many changes not just in tech but in attitude by the operator the ran challenges are not just the dwindling profit margins ( yes they are reducing) as customers demand higher data rates but pay relatively less for the service now than in 1994 when we launched.
It’s clearly about delivering the “content” as fast as possible to as many users as possible.
A real pinch point is the microwave transmission systems used where fiber is not available (21cn or virgin) having rf coverage when masts are difficult to acquire planning and of course being able to gain access in an increasingly third party world (site providers / landlord agents).
Managed services who don’t care about the customer (the phone user) who also increasingly have margins reduced, and off shoring.
It’s a very hostile world in mobile these days let alone more cost for new ran equipment.
I see a more converged world where the customer does not need to know what “G” is used and in fact more integration with fixed line systems and more intelligent hand off’s . Increased data intelligence in the bts and a reduction in the requirement to transfer data from the ran to the e-core in real time, however this will need to”value” the ran and it’s field engineers more than at the moment.
The drive to reduce the OPEX costs have given rise to “you get what you pay for” when the public safety radio system transfer from airwave to mobile it could all come crashing down this time more than a call could drop.