5G Development and Progress in Singapore

The Singapore regulator IMDA (Info-communications Media Development Authority) recently presented at ITU-APT 26-28 GHz India 5G spectrum Workshop. This blog contains a summary of the presentation by Mr. Henry Foo, Senior Assistant Director in Policy, Regulation & Competition Development Group, IMDA.

To encourage 5G testing and development in Singapore, IMDA has waived any fees associated with spectrum during the trials. It is also doing co-existence trials with other stakeholders and spectrum in the 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands.

A recent whitepaper from @Keysight points out that the 5G Uplink transmission in 3.5 GHz band might significantly interfere with 4G in the 1.8 GHz band in downlink direction. Maybe bad news, especially in Europe, where these are heavily used. https://t.co/yz3tjuo8kI pic.twitter.com/chCbtbzyOn

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) October 15, 2018

Remember that as pointed out in the tweet above, there is a possibility of interference between 4G & 5G. Singapore already has 1800 MHz (1.8 GHz) in use for LTE so trials need to identify the interference between 1.8 & 3.5 GHz.

As with most other countries, its looking at 700 MHz for coverage layer, 3.5 GHz for capacity layer and 26, 28 & 38 GHz for high throughput layer.

The operators in Singapore (M1, Singtel, Starhub) have similar concerns to operators elsewhere. How do you recover the investments in LTE before investing further into 5G? What are the killer use cases for 5G that will be a source for additional new revenue?

5G small cells are foreseen to play a big role in the mmWave spectrum for providing high throughput in low-mobility scenarios. Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is another technology being trialed. FWA is going to be an interesting use case because Fiber to the home and premises (FTTH/FTTP) is easily available there with speeds upto 10 Gbps.

Back in July, Singtel announced that it will launch by the fourth quarter of this year Singapore’s first 5G pilot network at one-north, the country’s science, business and IT hub along with Ericsson. The pilot network can deliver 5G coverage with enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) speed and low latency communications.

"Singtel and Ericsson are planning drone and autonomous vehicle trials on their 5G pilot network later this year at one-north and other designated areas. Enterprises can use the network to develop new 5G use cases and tap the business potential of 5G." 

M1 is working with Huawei & Nokia for 5G. First announcement with Huawei

M1 Limited (M1) and Huawei today announced plans to jointly showcase innovative 5G use cases in Singapore, starting with the live demonstration of 360-view Virtual Reality (VR) content broadcast by end of June this year. The demonstration, using 5G equipment setup at M1’s MiWorld building in Jurong, is Singapore’s first end-to-end 5G live trial using Huawei’s 5G equipment operating at the 28GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) frequency band.

The next announcement with Nokia, a day later.

M1 Limited (M1) and Nokia today announced plans to conduct Nokia’s first 5G small cell trial in Southeast Asia. The two companies will also showcase demand-driven 5G use cases in selected vertical industries which require dedicated small cell capacity and very low latency IoT connectivity. 

Leveraging on M1’s engineering experience in deploying an extensive 4.5G Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) at traffic hotspots throughout Singapore, this 5G small cell trial marks another important milestone in M1 and Nokia’s joint efforts in staying at the forefront of the  latest technology developments. The findings from this live trial will provide valuable practical learnings for the commercial deployment of 5G small cells in a dense cell grid architecture and operating at very high 5G frequency bands.

Starhub upgraded their LTE network to Gigabit LTE (4.5G or LTE-A Pro) back in April. It has announced that it will be switching on limited 5G by the end of the year.

"StarHub and Nokia have signed a multi-year agreement under which Nokia will deploy network upgrades using its advanced radio access, small cells, virtualised core and IP routing technologies as well as its cloud orchestration and signalling, network management, security, IoT, self-organising network and session border controller software."

Other operators from Southeast Asia a keenly watching 5G developments in Singapore to decide their way forward.

The Rise of Reliance Jio Continues as it Acquires Over 250 Million Subscribers

Reliance Jio announced last week that it has crossed 250,000,000 subscribers. The following are some of the highlights from the announcement (emphasis mine):

• Jio has accelerated its pace of subscriber additions further with net addition during the quarter of 37.0 million (as against 28.7 million in the previous quarter), highest in any quarter since the launch of commercial services
• Gross adds at 41.7 million and churn of 4.7 million implying the lowest industry churn rate at 0.66% per month
• Customer engagement continued to grow with average data consumption per user per month of 11.0 GB and average voice consumption of 761 minutes per user per month
• Video consumption drove most of the usage, increasing to 410 crore hours per month on the network; average video consumption of 17.5 hours per subscriber per month
• Further deepening of all-IP 4G LTE network in existing areas along with coverage expansion to 99% of population is on track to be completed in FY19
• Only network to deploy tri-band (800MHz/ 1800MHz/ 2300MHz) pan-India 4G
• World’s largest mobile data consumption network which is 5G ready
• World’s largest VOLTE network, with voice traffic growing consistently
• JioTV is the best rated live and catch-up TV app; JioCinema is the most popular video-ondemand app; JioMusic and Saavn together is music powerhouse with over 40 million songs; JioMags and JioNews are other highly popular customer offerings
• Strengthened the KaiOS app-store for JioPhone users with customised versions of popular social media applications like YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook
• Reliance Retail Ltd launched the ‘Monsoon Hungama’ offer for JioPhone with upfront security deposit of only ₹ 501 for a new JioPhone during the quarter. The offer works in conjunction with return of an old feature phone. Also, JioPhone 2, which offers a larger screen and full QWERTY keyboard for a price of ₹ 2,999 has been offered through limited period flash sales. Most used social media applications like YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp are now available for Jio Phone users

I blogged about Jio phone 2 earlier here. JioPhone (1) and JioPhone2 are both feature phones based on KaiOS. In fact I tweeted back in May that Jio has become a leader in feature phones.

In just 10 months, Reliance Jio’s become the world leader in feature phones https://t.co/bNP0X5qiO2 via @qzindia #4G #FeaturePhones pic.twitter.com/SBkmWo4m0X

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) May 31, 2018

According to Telecomtalk, it is widely expected that my March 2020, Reliance Jio will have over 400 million subscribers and over 150 million JioPhone users.

Finally, Communications Today has some interesting charts from Bloomberg. I am going to use one chart below to show how data prices have plummeted in India which is responsible for major uptake of data services.

Related Posts:

• Reliance Jio getting ready for LTE-Broadcast (eMBMS) rollout
• India: Disruption and Competition
• Disruptive Reliance Jio on the road to 4G leadership
• The changing and challenging telecom landscape of India

China Mobile’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation System

From GSMA's 2018 Mobile Industry Impact Report: Sustainable Development Goals:

China has the largest agricultural sector in the world, and for the millions of people living in rural areas, agriculture is a way of life. However, there are still more than 30 million rural people living in poverty. To combat this, the Chinese government’s "targeted poverty alleviation strategy" aims to eradicate absolute poverty for all rural residents by 2020.

Introduced at the beginning of 2016, China Mobile’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation System (TPAS) consists of two parts: a mobile poverty application and a big data management & analytics platform. Through the system, government anti-poverty staff can use smartphones to collect information on rural families in poverty (to understand their health, diet and drinking conditions) to enable the government to manage poverty alleviation work more effectively. Concurrently, information and resources from NGOs and the government is shared (via the app) among the rural population, so that people can learn about poverty alleviation policies, apply for jobs, and access vital information (such as health advice or educational opportunities). China Mobile’s TPAS also enables rural poverty families to market and sell their agricultural produce through e-commerce channels, helping them to generate an income.

Impact: To date, China Mobile’s targeted poverty alleviation platform has been applied in 60 cities and counties in 10 provinces (namely Chongqing, Hunan, Henan, Anhui, Shanxi, Liaoning, Shannxi, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Ningxia) covering 7.18 million impoverished people and serving 710,000 poverty alleviation cadres. By 2020, China Mobile aims to cover 10 million impoverished people in China, to provide intelligent tools and link thousands of welfare resources to government staff, and help the government run targeted poverty alleviation policies.

Further Reading:

• China's Approach to Reduce Poverty: Taking Targeted Measures to Lift People out of Poverty
• GSMA: 2018 Mobile Industry Impact Report: Sustainable Development Goals

Etisalat: Striving for 5G

Etisalat is a multinational Emirati based telecommunications services provider, with 143 million subscribers operating in 16 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Etisalat’s current market cap is over AED 156 billion (42.5 billion USD). With reported net revenues of AED 52.4 billion and net profit of AED 8.4 billion for 2016, Etisalat ranks amongst the most profitable telecom groups in the world.

Etisalat became one of the world’s fastest growing telecom operators; with customer numbers growing from 4 million to over 140 million in less than 10 years. Its international acquisition programme began in earnest in 2004 through the award of the second mobile license, and the first 3G license in Saudi Arabia. Since then the company has witnessed rapid expansion, across the Middle East, Africa and Asia through acquisitions and organic growth. Etisalat now has access to a population of close to 700 million people, with Thuraya; its satellite network provider covering over two thirds of the planet’s surface.

Etisalat’s focuses on delivering innovative solutions to transform the communities in which it operates and fast track social development and economic growth. The telco is committed to actively develop and engineer platforms for growth within the local markets in which it operates through the deployment of advanced technologies, quality networks and customer focused services.

Etisalat launched 4G mobile services in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and presently operates the Middle East’s largest LTE network with population coverage exceeding 82 per cent. Etisalat offers both the Middle East’s fastest fixed line broadband service with speeds of up to 500Mbps - the highest mobile broadband connectivity speeds to date. It has also launched several 3G networks in its footprint including Egypt Afghanistan; Ivory Coast and Benin. These advancements have helped Etisalat capture market share with the introduction of mobile broadband services and affordable internet access.

In May 2018 Etisalat announced the launch of the first commercial 5G wireless network in the UAE becoming the first telecom operator in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to achieve this technological milestone and set an industry benchmark.

Saleh Al Abdooli, CEO, Etisalat Group applauded the efforts of the entire team, he said:

"Today's announcement is a historic moment for the company as the commercial launch of the 5G network will set a milestone for the UAE. Etisalat today is the first telecom operator in the world to provide this ultra-high 5G C-band data speed as a commercial service over the wireless network.
5G stands out as a game changer with rich potential, an evolution that would elevate services, performance, and enablement. It is the natural progression as part of our network modernization journey, the anticipated technical specifications are promising, bringing along various desirable features and functionalities."

The aim to have a fully developed commercial 5G network available to provide gigabit internet services to its customers. The network will fuel enterprises digital transformation, IoT, smart cities and the fourth industrial revolution.

Etisalat is also set to launch 5G devices by first-half of 2019.

This year at Gitex, Etisalat also has a special exhibition on the future of mobility, which is the best use case for 5G. The arrival of 5G technology will allow faster data transmissions and will prove to be game changing for the autonomous industry. 

A download speed comparison between 4G and 5G live networks was showcased live giving visitors a chance to experience the "download time" difference between the two technologies by downloading a 4K HD movie/video using 4G and 5G e 5G use case that will focus on ultra-high speed and low latency. The exhibit will highlight the comparison of time to download a 4K video using 4G and 5G technology. The video(more than 1GB) download time is taken only 13 seconds as opposed to 4G, which takes approximately 2 minutes.

The download progress was displayed on the screen to show the time taken to download the file on each technology. Visitors will had the chance to observe the time taken to download a large size file on 4G and 5G concurrently.

Saeed Al Zarouni, Senior Vice President, Mobile Network, Etisalat highlighted:

 "This year our participation at Gitex Technology week is significant as visitors can experience live 5G giving them a preview of the digital future. Etisalat has also taken the lead in 5G this year and this showcase is a testimony to our long-standing efforts in bringing growth and innovation in the country laying the foundation for smart city development.
"The showcase is also in line with our main theme at Gitex this year 'Leading the 5G Revolution' and 'Driving the Digital Future to empower societies'. We believe 5G technologies and services will deliver capacity and connectivity along with opportunities for economic growth, education, healthcare, transportation and more."

Also on exhibited by Etisalat at Gitex is Pop.UpNext's Future Mobility Concept, an unmanned flying electric vehicle that is jointly developed by Audi, Airbus, and ItalDesign. Pop.Up Next's philosophy behind the design anticipates the challenges that the next 50 years will bring. It represents a vision of the potential offered by future technologies when it comes to transportation.

The concept aims to tackle issues linked to city planning and traffic in large urban centres that are increasingly becoming one of the priority aspects for safeguarding our planet. The Pop.Up Next system aims to free commuters from the need to drive through a flexible, shared and adaptable new way of moving within cities.

The vehicle combines the flexibility of a small two-seater ground vehicle with the freedom and speed of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) air vehicle, thus bridging the automotive and aerospace domains.

The car itself is a self-driving, electric vehicle, it is the first fully electric and zero-emission modular system bringing together road mobility and air transport. It combines the flexibility of a small two seater ground vehicle with the freedom and speed of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) air vehicle, thus bridging the automotive and aerospace domains. It can accelerate to 60mph in 9.7 seconds with a top speed exceeding 130kmph. The car features a curved 5K widescreen display that comes with voice and gesture control. The interactive display system, made by Harman, lets you do everything from watching movies to alerting you of upcoming obstacles, and even telling you when the light will turn green, through a vehicle-to-infrastructure communication system. The car also comes with a heads-up display to provide guidance when making turns when a driver is behind the wheel.

Etisalat also demonstrated an advanced 5G based drone equipped with a 360-degree VR camera and 4K streaming experience.

With IoT gaining popularity and the use of cyber-physical systems and advanced analytics to transform all aspects of the industry, Etisalat has also displayed tactile internet use cases where the robotic system is controlled remotely using the 5G technology. Tactile internet enables humans and machines to interact with their environment, in real time, while on the move and within a certain spatial communication range as well as enables haptic interaction with visual feedback. 

These 5G powered tactile production systems showcased for the first time support increasingly flexible production lines and safer working environments that will allow industry to enhance productivity, and respond to customer needs, as they continue on their digital transformation journey. 

Big Data & Artificial Intelligence at Telefónica Deutschland

Telefonica Deutschland, a.k.a. O2 Germany is Germany's largest mobile operator. As in case of many other advanced mobile operators, its looking at how to exploit Big Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve end-user QoE.

Telefonica's 3G coverage is close to 90% while the LTE coverage is over 80%.

Advanced Data Analytics  can be applied to big data with the intention of monetizing it. As can be seen in the picture above:

• Transport analytics can be applied to develop insights into human journeys to support customer decision-making (e.g. for traffic optimisation). This data can be useful to Transport companies, cities, out-of-home media, etc.
• Retail analytics can be used to better understand consumer behaviour in store and out of store to improve customer journeys. This data can be retail shops, operators of branch networks, etc.

At MWC 2018, Telefónica launched Aura, an artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant that will transform the way customers interact with Telefónica and manage their digital life with the company. They first release of Aura was made available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.  Aura will be delivered to customer devices via a mobile application, but also via other third-party channels including Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

The intention of AI powered assistant is to increase customer benefits and reduce costs.

The end goal for Telefónica Deutschland is to become Mobile Customer & Digital champion. We wish them all the best!

Source: Telefónica Deutschland Capital Market Day 2018

Italy's 5G Spectrum Auction Controversy

5G spectrum auctions went far better than expected in Italy for the government. According to Mobile World Live:

Vodafone Italia and Telecom Italia each spent €2.4 billion to grab the largest share of spectrum on offer in an Italian auction of 5G-suitable frequencies, which raised €4 billion more than the minimum amount targeted by the government.

All four of the country’s operators secured spectrum. Newcomer Iliad Italia spent €1.2 billion, while Wind Tre acquired licences to the value of €517 million.

In a statement, Italy’s Ministry for Economic Development said the auction generated “lively competition” especially for the lots of 3.7GHz. In that band, Vodafone and Telecom Italia were both awarded 80MHz at a cost of €1.7 billion each, while the other two operators secured allocations of 20MHz for €484 million apiece.

Telecom Italia and Vodafone Italia also bought 200MHz of 26GHz (mmWave) and 20MHz in the 700MHz band. Iliad won 200MHz in the 26GHz band, alongside its 20MHz of 3.7GHz and 10MHz in the 700MHz band. Wind Tre acquired 20MHz of 3.7GHz and 200MHz in the 26GHz band.

Licences are valid for 19 years, with the exception of 700MHz allocations, which will not be released until 2022 and cover a term of 15.5 years. 

A similar 5G spectrum auction in Finland in 3.4 - 3.8 GHz band raised a mere €77.6 million for the Finnish government. According to Light Reading:

The home of Nokia yesterday wrapped up an auction of spectrum in the 3.4-3.8GHz range that raised just €77.6 million ($89.3 million) for the government, barely enough to refurbish some local saunas. Italy's runaway sale of 3.6-3.8GHz spectrum, by contrast, yesterday passed the €6 billion ($6.9 billion) milestone. Assuming the government doesn't waste it on celebratory Prosecco, the eventual windfall could plug more than a few holes in the public-sector purse. 
...

Finland's auction has been restrained for a couple of reasons. First, the government decided to auction three very large spectrum blocks of equal size. Second, the Finnish mobile market has effectively consolidated into a three-player affair, a ménage à trois in which everyone is reasonably content.

Consequently, Telia Finland, Elisa Corp. and DNA Oy each walked away with a 130MHz license that did not come at eye-watering expense. While Telia Company shelled out the most with a €30.3 million ($34.9 million) payment, no operator spent dramatically more than government base prices of either €23 million ($26.5 million) or €21 million ($24.2 million), depending on the allocation in question. Elisa and DNA paid €26.3 million ($30.3 million) and €21 million ($24.2 million) for their concessions, respectively.

In Italy, the government appears to have chopped a 200MHz block of spectrum into four uneven chunks, two of 80MHz and two of 20MHz. A 20MHz channel would not really be enough for most advanced 5G services, though, and operators know it. Four of them are fighting over these airwaves after competition authorities recently opened the door to France's Iliad, one of Europe's most aggressive mobile operators. Their aim was to prevent Italy from consolidating into a dreaded three-player mobile market with the merger of 3 Italia and Wind.

The following is a summary of all the spectrum courtesy of Fitch Solutions Macro Research:

Finnish Spectrum Auction, October 2018

Source: Ficora
Band	Operator	Price (EUR)
3410-3540MHz	Telia	30,258,000
3540-3670MHz	Elisa	26,347,000
3670-3800MHz	DNA	21,000,000

Italian Spectrum Auction

Source: Ministry Of Economic Development
Band	Operator	Price (EUR)
700MHz	Iliad	676,472,792
700MHz	Vodafone	345,000,000
700MHz	TIM	340,100,000
700MHz	TIM	340,100,000
700MHz	Vodafone	338,236,396
3700MHz (80MHz)	TIM	1,694,000,000
3700MHz (80MHz)	Vodafone	1,685,000,000
3700MHz (20MHz)	WindTre	483,920,000
3700MHz (20MHz)	Iliad	483,900,000
26GHz	TIM	33,020,000
26GHz	Iliad	32,900,000
26GHz	Fastweb	32,600,000
26GHz	WindTre	32,586,535
26GHz	Vodafone	32,586,535

It will be interesting to see how it works out in 5G and if operators are still able to deploy a 5G network that is compared to other European countries.

Further Reading:

• ITU Forum “Towards 5G Enabled Gigabit Society”: Regulation and award of 5G pioneer bands in Italy - Mauro Martino, Head of Telecommunications Spectrum Office, Digital Services and Network Direction, AGCOM
• Mobile World Live: Operators splash €6.5B in Italy 5G spectrum auction
• Light Reading: Finland's 5G Sale Is No Italian Job
• Fitch Solutions: Italy Overpaying, Finland Underpaying For 5G Spectrum

SK Telecom Mobile Network History and 5G

SK Telecom has a long history of being world's first but that may not necessarily hold true for 5G. There have been so many claims of "first in the world" that it is even difficult to keep track of who has been launching what kind of 5G.

The picture above summarizes SK Telecom's plan for 5G launch, early to mid 2019. The presentation, delivered to ITU is available here.


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• Orange Romania: 1st European 5G multi-vendor Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) test
• San Marino launches first nationwide 5G network
• Three Middle East Operators launch 'World's First' 5G Networks