Huawei: how 5G changes networks, their cost and their use
5 G is about to alter the telecommunications situation in every respect: on the one side there will be changes in the use of telecommunications networks for reasons beyond those of today, and on the other there will be changes for telephone operators. At the 2019 Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, Huawei provided some information and scenarios.
Huawei: the 5 G ready to change networks and how they are used Huawei is a protagonist of the transition to 5 G, as demonstrated by the reality that two thirds of the networks that have been introduced so far in many nations (including Italy, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland and Kuwait) use Huawei branded devices. The firm argues 50 business agreements are in place and 150,000 base stations have been supplied.
Where the 5 G networks have already been launched, changes are already taking place: in South Korea, for example, the target of one million users was reached in two months, with an average daily traffic of 1.3 GB per user, an average gain per user 75% higher than that of 4 G and a cost per GB 90% lower. On the industrial front, if these information are particularly interesting from the point of view of private customers, such a tiny cost per gigabyte can lead to considerably reduced prices for businesses, thus making massive use of the potential of new networks for their own businesses without facing enormous costs.
Among the 5 G's major novelties is the biggest accessible band. An interesting scenario envisaged by Huawei for the use of next-generation networks is that of live television broadcasts: while large-scale investments are now needed for live connections, it will be possible to minimize direct expenses with 5 G and a cloud "bridge" and with smaller field employees. This is because the real-time videos are sent to the primary office via the cloud, which can then broadcast them.
But the effect on the front of the operators is also interesting: the 5 G also considerably alters the impact on the networks and machinery used to construct them. For instance, Huawei says that its active antennas are 55 percent lower and 23 percent heavier than previous generation radio units, making it simpler to position antennas on the land and within the different locations in a widespread way. Another particularly significant parameter is energy efficiency: the per-bit efficiency is 25 times that of past generations, resulting in a dramatic decrease in operator expenses.
These latter elements contribute to the cost reduction mentioned above, which then falls on the businesses that want to use the new networks. On many fronts, 5 G spread seems to have paved the way ahead, not least competitiveness. However, it may still take some time for the actual results of these modifications to be seen, given that retail prices per GB are currently rather high-and if it is true that these are prices for early adopters of private gil, it is equally true that the original transition stage usually entails greater expenses to take benefit of new networks (and, on the other hand, greater costs to impinge on them).