GSA PRESS RELEASE Nokia Joins Executive Board of Global mobile Suppliers Association 7th December 2015: Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) is pleased to announce that Nokia, one of the original-founding members of the GSA, has re-joined the GSA Executive Board. “Nokia has supported the GSA activities and actively contributed to numerous projects over the past 17 years”, said Joe Barrett, President - GSA. “All of the GSA members and the other Executive members are pleased to welcome Nokia back to the GSA board.” “We look forward to engaging even deeper with the GSA in its…
Ericsson Mobility Report (November 2015): PRESS RELEASE November 23, 2015 - [374.3 KB] The November 2015 edition of the Mobility Report provides updated trends and forecasts for mobile data traffic. From the addition of 87 million new mobile broadband subscriptions in Q3 2015 to the estimate that video will account for 70 percent of total mobile traffic by 2021 – read these insights and more. This latest edition also provides insight into the future of 5G networks, including a forecast of 150 million 5G mobile subscriptions by 2021. South Korea, Japan, China and the US…
GSA attended the Huawei Global Mobile Broadband (MBB) Forum in Hong Kong between the 2-4th of November 2015. Hosted by Huawei and the GSMA it was a spectacular event with the largest presentation screen we have ever seen. Around 1,000 people were in attendance and we listened to presentations from senior executives in the mobile industry including Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman and rotating CEO at Huawei, Alex Arena from Hong Kong Telecom, Peter Wong from Hutchinson 3, Alex Sinclair from the GSMA and Hroshi Nakamura from NTT DOCOMO. There were also very enlightening presentations from the 5G Forum-Korea, CNN, Time Inc., Google, Visa, Vodafone, China Telecom and Facebook to name just a few.
There was a very strong 5G theme over the two days with most presentations mentioning the Internet of Things (IoT) as being a main driver for 5G deployments.
Ken Hu pointed out from the very beginning of his presentation that there is still 1 billion unconnected in the world and 4 billion have no Internet access – this is creating a new digital divide. The industry focus should be to bridge this digital divide and one requirement is for regulators to make more spectrum available.
It is generally agreed that 5G will be about a better user experience – high definition audio and video – with video (4k now and 8k later) anticipated to be up to 70% of all network data traffic by 2020.
Both Google and Facebook referred to video as a main driver for 5G with CNN and Time Inc. echoing this message.
Bill Gajda, who is ex-GSMA and now VP of Innovation & Strategic Partnerships at Visa told the audience they have 2.2 billion payment points – cards and PoS terminals – and that they expect 50 billion by 2020 as multiple devices become payment enabled. There will be Access Points in the edge network to manage this huge growth in payment points using secure tokens to protect user data.
But lets get back to the discussion around IoT and some of the requirements that are driving the revolution or evolution to 5G.
Standards – Costs – Ecosystem – these are three key IoT areas.
Luke Ibbertson from Vodafone talked standards for Narrow Band Cellular IoT and the strides being taken to standardize NB-IoT. There should be commercial products based on the standard in the summer of 2016 with the 800 MHz & 900 MHz bands proposed as the ideal frequencies. Applications included pet trackers and parking bay sensors to inform drivers where the spaces are were suggested.
IoT access costs are currently running at around $5 but need to move to the next growth step of $1 per connection to drive rapid IoT deployments. We also think that clear and simple Service Level Agreements (SLA) need to be in place that encourage developers and product companies to enter the IoT market. Simple to understand SLAs will help drive a healthy ecosystem supporting fast market entry of new kinds of mobile devices and applications.
Our question at the event was to ask, “What will constitute a commercial 5G network or device? What performance criteria needs to be met for a network operator or vendor to be able to claim it is 5G?”
There was some agreement with the results of a recent GSA survey on the topic of 5G commercialisation criteria suggesting that massive MIMO, 1Gbps, sub 1 ms latency, a reduction in deployment costs, 1,000 X capacity increase and network splicing were all important 5G criteria. We don’t yet have a definitive definition of what performance criteria will constitute a 5G network in the eyes of the cautious GSA. Some hints will come in the new 5G GSA Executive Member white paper due out before the 16th November.
As always, GSA will strive to agree clear criteria for agreeing 5G commercial readiness as we look to monitor and report on 5G network and device availability.
But lets not forget that we are still evolving to LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro (The new 3GPP brand name for Release 13 and beyond). Stephen How from Bell Canada and Hans Cronberg from Poland’s “new” P4 (Play) operator explained how they continue to roll out LTE with some very interesting 4G LTE marketing from P4 in particular. You had to be there but basically P4 did actually promote a mobile service based on the promise that 4G LTE is coming!
Finally – there is clearly some overlap between what LTE will deliver and what 5G is predicted to deliver from 2020. While we don’t agree that one 5G-performance criteria being met means a commercial 5G network, there will be cases where operators could claim an early 5G network deployment based on a subset of full 5G network performance criteria. It could get messy out there and that is why GSA is striving to help the industry define what 5G will be.
CHART: Fast Facts November 2, 2015 - [509.2 KB] 3G Mobile Broadband Deployments 4G LTE update Global MBB Device Echosystem (c) GSA, Global mobile Suppliers Association
LTE1800 global status – List of 192 launched networks
SNAPSHOT: LTE1800 global status - List of 192 launched networks and devices ecosystem status October 21, 2015 - [527.8 KB] The most widely used spectrum for LTE network deployments is 1800 MHz (3GPP band 3). 192 LTE1800 networks are commercially launched in 92 countries. 1800 MHz is used in 43.4% of LTE network deployments and also has the largest user devices ecosystem. Over 47% of LTE user terminals can operate in the 1800 MHz band. Download the list of all 192 commercially launched LTE1800 networks together with the status of the user devices ecosystem in…
LTE BROADCAST global status – summary of deployments, all activities worldwide
SNAPSHOT: LTE BROADCAST global status - summary of deployments, all activities worldwide October 21, 2015 - [398.9 KB] Recent months have witnessed a high level of activity in eMBMS/LTE Broadcast activities globally and traction is building across all regions. Several use cases are being developed and trialled, and more are emerging. The first LTE Broadcast service was commercially launched in January 2014 and the eMBMS-capable devices ecosystem is building, however more devices are needed. Several operators announced planned service launches in 2015. Download the list of all LTE Broadcast system investments (deployments, launches, trials, studies)…
GSA Evolution to LTE report: 442 LTE networks launched:
GSA Evolution to LTE report: 442 LTE networks launched: More LTE-Advanced, VoLTE expansion Published October 13, 2015 - [5.6 MB] The Evolution to LTE report confirms the status of the LTE market worldwide including LTE and LTE-Advanced network deployments (FDD and TDD), commercial service launches, the user devices ecosystem, subscriptions growth, regulatory developments including spectrum allocations, VoLTE, APT700, LTE Broadcast, LTE roaming, and highlights the main industry trends. The report is based on our own research and industry contacts and is our independent assessment and analysis, supported by facts and metrics. 442 LTE networks are…
Top 10 GSA Member papers July-Sep '15 topics, download stats: LTE-A, M2M, 5G, IoT, App coverage, LAA Published October 12, 2015 - [287.7 KB] LTE-A, LTE M2M, 5G, IoT, App Coverage, and LAA (Licensed Assisted Access) technologies were the dominant topics read about in the most popular Members papers on the GSA website for the 3 months period July-September 2015. Download the PDF for stats for the 3 months period July-September 2015, and the all-time downloads total for each paper. The most popular Members paper in the 3 months period July-September 2015 was "LTE-Advanced (3GPP…