The world of telecommunications has started a transition to 5.5G, the next widely recognised standard for high-speed connectivity. However, the industry is not about to ditch 5G, which still has a long runway more than four years after its launch, and represents a huge revenue opportunity for the rest of this decade.
These were two of the key themes that emerged from this week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, which drew up to 101,000 delegates to the planet’s largest technology conference dedicated to a single topic. Numerous new phones, laptops and connected devices were launched at the event, along with new software and services leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.
The common factor in most of these areas was Chinese technology giant Huawei, which dominated the MWC with one of the biggest show booths yet seen at the event. It launched new products and devices for sectors as diverse as mining, automotive, electricity, manufacturing and public services.
At a summit conference titled “5G Beyond Growth” at MWC, Huawei corporate senior vice-president Li Peng said 5.5G would further unlock the potential of networks and create new growth opportunities for 5G. “5G is on the right path to business success,” he said.
“5G began commercialisation in 2019, and over the past five years it has already gained 1.5-billion 5G users around the world. It took nine years for 4G to make this happen. Currently, 20% of global mobile subscribers are using 5G. These users generate 30% of all mobile traffic and contribute to 40% of mobile service revenue.”
Though 5.5G is not an official standard, much as 3.5G heralded 4G it sets the agenda for the next version and builds new possibilities, such as those created by AI, onto 5G. Rather than having a formal definition, there is widespread industry consensus on its capabilities. As a result, unlike 5G and its distant successor 6G, it does not have to wait for formal ratification before being rolled out.
The GSMA, the global mobile industry body that hosts the MWC, refers to it as 5G-Advanced, in the same way that 4.5G became LTE-Advanced. According to Li, 5.5G is entering commercial use in 2024 and the telecommunications industry will see AI, cloud and 5.5G converge, allowing carriers to unlock the potential of new applications and capabilities. More significantly, it will allow them to improve the quality of mobile networks. This, in turn, would persuade customers to buy the latest phones that take advantage of high-speed connectivity.
That would result in the traffic generated by these users rising significantly, maximising its value to carriers. Li gave the example of a Chinese carrier that launched a guaranteed uplink package to provide gamers and live streamers with smooth, high-definition feeds. The result? It increased its average revenue per user by more than 70%.
Existing 5G networks are barely capable of handling the demands of AI, as they were often poorly implemented. The industry went for a slightly cheaper deployment solution, which tried to reuse as much as they could
— Dario Betti, CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum
The new capabilities of 5.5G include technical business-to-business services such as “deterministic latency”, precise positioning and passive internet of things (IoT) connections. Consumer services include glasses-free 3D and New Calling, which allow users to communicate via virtual avatars. Generative AI will come into its own as machine intelligence becomes widely and easily accessible.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), global AI mobile phone shipments this year will reach 170-million units — 15% of all smartphones — as all handset manufacturers build powerful storage, display and imaging capabilities into high-end devices. Such applications, says the IDC, will generate hundreds of billions of gigabytes of data and create new opportunities for carriers.
Dario Betti, CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, which represents several hundred companies serving the mobile industry, told Business Times that 5.5G was critical for the industry to leverage AI, as it would support low latency and short, sharp bursts of intensive data transmission.
Existing 5G networks are barely capable of handling the demands of AI, as they were often poorly implemented, Betti said. “True 5G implementation, what we call standalone 5G, or 5G-SA, does not reuse any old 4G elements, but requires 5G on the core and the radio access network, and on everything in between. That wasn’t done. That’s where some of the big gains that we expected in quality and customer experience probably didn’t materialise, because the industry went for a slightly cheaper deployment solution, which tried to reuse as much as they could.
“It was a bolt-on network, rather than saying let’s build a network from scratch. If you compare the average speed of some of the standalone networks, they tend to have very fast speed, very good customer experience.”
As a result, networks in some Asian and Middle Eastern countries are outperforming those in Europe, which tend to be a patchwork of 5G and 4G. The advent of 5.5G will help them make amends.
A Huawei Cloud meeting in Barcelona on the eve of the MWC reiterated these opportunities. It presented 10 AI-orientated innovations and extensive industry expertise in an AI show of force. Huawei Cloud chief technology officer Bruno Zhang said today’s AI foundation models redefine production, interaction, service paradigms and business models for traditional applications. “AI for cloud uses AI and foundation models to elevate your experience. Cloud for AI makes AI adoption seamless and efficient. Architectural innovation, AI-native storage and data-AI convergence empower you to train and use AI like never before.”
The GMSA says that, even as networks prepare for 5.5G, the continued rollout of 5G must remain their priority. Its intelligence unit (GSMAi) released new figures this week showing that 5G connections are expected to represent 56% of mobile connections by 2030. 5G has been the fastest mobile generation rollout to date, passing 1-billion connections by the end of 2022 — expected to rise to 5.5-billion by 2030.
GSMAi head Peter Jarich said this week: “The early success of 5G was driven by enhanced mobile broadband and ... related network traffic requirements. Yet, while consumer requirements will continue their trajectory, we’re now seeing use cases beyond that. 5G-SA brings home 5G’s early promise, particularly where slicing, low latency and massive IoT capabilities tied to enterprise service needs can be met. 5G-Advanced will only extend that further.”
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