The new research, Mobile Voice Strategies: Future Monetisation Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2022-2026, urged operators to capitalise on the growth of Voice-over-5G users to create a new portfolio of voice services. It recommends that operators prioritise interactive calling, intelligent call routing, and the integration of AI-based IVR (Interactive Voice Services) as these provide the most immediate return on investment of Voice-over-5G.
5G to Enable Operators to Compete with OTT Apps
In particular, the report identified interactive calling as a key opportunity for operators who have launched 5G to provide more valuable voice services and compete with OTT voice apps. Interactive calling leverages 5G networks to offer advanced voice calling functionality, including interactive content and screensharing, directly in the native calling app on smartphones, thus negating the need for third‑party applications.
Current 4G voice technology, VoLTE (Voice-over-LTE), is not sufficient to support interactive calling. Whilst there are currently over 4.4 billion VoLTE users, representing over 50% of subscribers, the lower speed of 4G networks in comparison to 5G networks has thus far restricted the use of interactive features or AI in operators’ voice services.
Voice Revenue Forecast to Still Decline
Despite the growth of Voice-over-5G, the report forecasts that operator-billed voice revenue will decline by 16% over the next four years, as P2P voice traffic migrates to third-party voice apps. It urges operators to capitalise on the growth of 5G to develop new business‑oriented voice services, such as interactive calling. 5G-based voice services must emulate operators’ current business messaging solutions by levying the cost on enterprises, rather than monetising mobile subscriber usage.
]]>A survey by 5G Americas based on information from regulators, network operators and Telegeography reveals that in Mexico there is a second operator that in December 2021 began activating its 5G network, but with coverage limited to some areas of Mexico City and for testing purposes. In Central America these networks have not been deployed, although regulators already consider new spectrum suitable for the development of 5G.
In the case of Mexico, the AWS, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands provide spectrum for 5G networks and testing. In Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama there has been progress in planning more spectrum for mobile services, but no new calls for bids have been issued in these last four countries.
In Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, depending on the country, “low” (600 MHz and 700 MHz), “medium” (1427 – 1518 MHz, 2.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz) and “high” (26 GHz, 28 GHz, 40 GHz and 66 – 71 GHz) bands are considered as capacity to boost mobile telecommunications networks within the next decade. Mexico plans to conduct between 2022 and 2023 a new spectrum auction that will offer frequencies suitable for 5G in the 600 MHz, 1427 – 1518 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands.
Networks in 5G will require using different types of frequency bands to meet the service parameters of different use cases for human, industrial and general Internet of Things (IoT) connections.
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Increasing numbers of mobile operators are getting ready to roll out telco clouds and edge compute architectures for 5G core network functions and distributed application deployments. In doing so, they will have to define whether to opt for a vertical implementation involving different vendors for different use cases or, alternatively, a horizontal architecture composed of distinct layers. As technology progresses, the latter option is starting to resonate ever louder with forward-looking telcos. In fact, there’s a strong case to be made that the realization of 5G’s full benefits and capabilities depends on a flexible, open, and transparent architecture. This is an approach starting to be adopted by some greenfield operators that are looking to disrupt the telecoms market with a radical new cost structure.
Big business benefits for operators
From a business perspective, a horizontal telco cloud architecture has several advantages over more traditional approaches:
Furthermore, the architecture makes it possible to leverage a common platform to host telco and IT workloads. This minimizes the number of different hardware and platform components needed in the entire network.
Telcos can also maintain their independence by partnering with major cloud providers, such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. This means they can deploy workloads in parts of the network that remain separate from the partnership with the cloud provider.
Unlike its predecessors, the 5G standard has been developed in a way that encourages operators to employ a horizontal architecture. The new generation of cellular technology has been designed to harness the service-based architecture that now permeates the IT sphere.
It is also important to note that modern applications are composed of micro-services that perform specific functions and exchange information using the HTTP protocol and open application programming interfaces (APIs). The 5G service-based architecture relies on the exact same principles, leveraging HTTP-based APIs for interconnecting the different 5G functions.
The need for in-house expertise
Naturally, some operators will be better equipped to shift to a horizontal telco stack than others. Our conversations with 5G operators lead us to believe that there is growing appetite to move ahead with implementations, but they will likely progress at different speeds.
A key challenge moving ahead is that many service providers have limited in-house skills to start running a horizontal telco stack. A new architecture of this nature calls for a major organizational and technological shift, as vertical teams need to be reorganized into horizontal teams.
Consequently, some operators might begin with a hybrid approach where they gradually move specific vendors’ functions from a vertical to a horizontal stack. The initial moves are likely to focus on IT applications, with the telco team running a specific stack for their use cases, at least in the near-term.
For some use cases, applications and network functions must be deployed closer to end users to meet stringent bandwidth and latency requirements. As a result, we’re starting to see momentum building for edge computing initiatives that require telcos to deploy, secure, and manage cloud-native applications and 5G network functions across a large set of distributed Kubernetes clusters.
Clearly, there’s a lot of developments and innovations to digest but the overall direction of travel is clear. As they deploy standalone 5G networks and edge compute architectures, telcos across the world will start to realize the many benefits of deploying an open, transparent, and flexible architecture that gives full visibility and control of their networks.
]]>“2020 has been a difficult year. During this time, Huawei worked closely with our customers,” said Mr. Ding. In 2020, Huawei supported the stable operations of over 300 networks across more than 170 countries and helped operators provide online services and minimize the impact of the pandemic on their business. Working with Huawei, operators attracted 22 million new wireless home broadband users worldwide. Thanks to this, people can easily access telemedicine services and work from home.
“5G developed faster than we had expected.” More than 140 commercial 5G networks have been deployed in 59 countries. According to Ding, over 50% of these were built by Huawei. The ecosystem is also maturing. In China, more than 68% of smartphones shipped in 2020 were 5G phones. More than 200 5G modules and industrial devices are now available, supporting 5G application in a broad range of industries.
Huawei helped operators build the best networks.
According to the 2020 reports from third parties, including IHS, P3, OpenSignal and Meqyas, the best 5G networks in Seoul, Amsterdam, Madrid, Zurich, Hong Kong and Riyadh were all the networks built by Huawei. Ding stressed that great network experience is the foundation of business success, and that these 6 cities are just a tip of the iceberg in terms of our collaborative innovation with operators. For instance, by deploying Huawei’s 64T64R AAUs and leading multi-antenna algorithms, LG U+ achieved higher spectrum efficiency and network experience more than 25% better than other operators. With Huawei’s Blade AAU, which can operate in both Sub3G and C-Band, Sunrise shortened site acquisition time from 24 months to 6 months, and was only operator with 5 straight outstanding ratings in Switzerland.
5G is becoming part of core production processes in industries.
Looking ahead, Mr. Ding was bullish about the prospect of large-scale deployment of 5G industrial applications in 2021. 5G applications have been deployed in more than 20 industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, education and logistics. Ding pointed to examples in China where 5G industrial applications are already proving their worth, such as in coal mining, steel making and manufacturing, where the adoption of 5G has, Ding said, made production safer, more intelligent, and more efficient. Ding emphasized that, ”5G is no longer for early adopters, it is improving our daily lives. 2021 will be the first year with large-scale 5G industry applications. Operators will need new capabilities in network planning, deployment, maintenance, optimization, and operations, in order to achieve “0 to 1”, and replicate success from 1 to many. Huawei will have exhibitions and in-depth discussions on these topics with industry stakeholders online and offline at the upcoming MWC Shanghai. We will keep innovating to help our customers build the best 5G networks and achieve greater business success.”
]]>Despite a global pandemic and economic challenges, the fifth generation of wireless “5G” powered ahead at four times the speed of subscriber growth as 4G LTE, according to 5G Americas, the wireless industry trade association and voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas.
According to data provided by Omdia, the world added 225 million 5G subscribers between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, a feat which required 4G LTE four years to attain. As of December 2020, there were 229 million 5G subscriptions globally, which represents an astonishing 66 percent increase over last quarter – and is expected to reach 236 million globally by the end of 2020.
Chris Pearson, President, 5G Americas said: “The emergence of fast low latency 5G networks comes at an important time as people have shifted to working remotely. This historical re-adjustment clearly demonstrates the need for continuous mobile connectivity as social and physical distancing requirements have changed how we work, live and play.”
Overall in Q3 2020, an additional 29 5G networks went live, bringing the total up to 143 5G commercial networks globally, a number which is expected to reach 180 by the end of 2020, according to data from TeleGeography.
In addition, the growing availability of 5G-enabled devices has also been a boon to customers and the industry, as 69 percent of quality-led service providers have launched commercial 5G smartphones for their networks, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility November 2020 Report. The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) noted there are 519 5G devices announced, of which 303 were commercially available by the end of November 2020.
In addition to 5G, 4G LTE is also experiencing healthy growth, surpassing year-end projections of 5.73 billion to reach 5.8 billion by the end of Q3 2020. Of those projections, 506 million 4G LTE connections will come from North America and 406 million will come from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Regionally, North America had 3.4 million 5G connections and over half a billion LTE connections, by the end of Q3 2020. For the region, this amounts to 47% quarterly growth in 5G, a gain of over 1 million 5G connections over the quarter. It also represents 3% growth in LTE, a gain of 14 million LTE connections over the quarter, as LTE continues extending its long tail of growth.
According to Jose Otero, Vice President of Caribbean and Latin America for 5G Americas, ” High-speed mobile connections continue growing in the region due to the increase in the number of urban areas with 5G services in Brazil and the ongoing expansion of LTE into suburban and rural localities in Colombia and Peru. New spectrum assignment processes in Chile, Dominican Republic, and Peru will accelerate the arrival of more 5G networks in the region, consolidating its role as the fastest growing mobile technology to arrive in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
With 5G just beginning in Latin America and the Caribbean, the region saw 1189 5G subscriptions added in the quarter, for a total of 4874, representing 32% sequential quarterly growth. By the end of 2020, Omdia was forecasting Latin America and the Caribbean would account for an additional 184,000 5G connections. However, 5G has had a slower than expected start in Latam and subscriptions are likely to fall short of that projection. In contrast, LTE continued its strong growth, ending Q3 2020 with 391 million LTE subscriptions (4% QoQ growth).
The number of networks using 4G and 5G wireless technologies are summarized here, as of December 2020:
Global:
North America:
Latin America & Caribbean:
*Source: TeleGeography and 5G Americas
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