-
My friend: Hi Ibrahim, I have a question for you.
- Me: You are most welcome, go ahead.
-
My friend: I am hearing that 5G technology started to lose the hype raised about it since the beginning of 5G deployment, so is this true?
- Me: Let me say that I don’t agree with this saying as 5G is deployed in more networks around the world in different bands and already achieved very high speeds such as more than 8 Gbps in DL with low latency that is less than 10ms, also high UL speeds that is around 1 Gbps. Moreover, 5G mmWave which many are claiming its short range, a lot of trials are done to increase its range up to 11km with 2 Gbps speed in DL and we are just still in the beginning stage of the 5G journey. But let me say that since a few years, a lot of people are not aware about 5G technology and its capabilities, so many people are asking about it, but now many people are aware about it and so less questions are raised about 5G which is the same behavior happening with any new technology.
-
My friend: But there were many use cases that 5G was promised to provide but we didn’t see it till now?
- Me: Actually, 5G was promised to deliver mainly eMBB, URLLC, and mMTC use cases, and also all uses case that are mix of these main cases such as V2X, AR, VR, etc., many successful trials are done for these use cases but the problem why these use cases are not widely implemented is that many of these use cases require 5G SA to deliver it, however many of the 5G deployments are 5G NSA which 3GPP has to deliver it to avoid market fragmentation, but the real 5G is 5G SA where all the 5G use case can be delivered easily.
-
My friend: But many MNOs didn’t achieve high revenues from 5G?
- Me: That’s true. But this happened due to some reasons such as deploying 5G NSA, not 5G SA and so not revealing the full capabilities of 5G to utilize it to implement more use cases. Moreover, 5G is built for enterprises, not for subscribers, while MNOs are still targeting subscribers with different mobile plans and didn’t prepare their networks to be ready for enterprises with their different requirements, for example to establish 5G private networks with its variant deployment models. So, MNOs should follow different approaches to better monetize 5G.
-
My friend: Thank you very much, you made it very clear.
- Me: You are most welcome.
LinkedIn: 