The latest GSA report shows that, by the end of May 2020, 386 operators announced worldwide that they were investing in 5G, among which 81 operators in 42 countries / territories launched 5G commercial services, including the most recent 5G MTN launch in South Africa.
The fifth generation of mobile networks, 5G, will enable enhanced mobile broadband, mission critical communications and massive IoT communication between devices.
However, the immediate need is for online digital communications, which can easily be provided over 4G or LTE networks.
The good news is that LTE is also the basis for the revolutionary move to 5G.
Bridging the digital divide and empowering more people in the world with online connectivity is critical to overcoming poverty and achieving a sustainable future. This will require a constant expansion of coverage and the adoption of LTE (4G) mobile broadband.
Living and working online is being recognized as a human right. Unfortunately, billions of people remain excluded from the opportunities of the online economy, according to Emmanuel Coelho Alves, Senior Marketing Director at Huawei.
"It is necessary to redouble our efforts for greater digital transmission and inclusion, to support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to bring the excluded 3,9 billion of the world's population online," he said. '' It will not be easy, but with intersectoral efforts by the government and partners from the private sector, academia and civil society ... we can achieve this goal.''
Emmanuel Alves spoke at the recent conference LTE 2020 online, carried out by the Global Mobile Communications System (GSMA).
Emmanuel Alves also said that progress has been made in expanding global mobile broadband coverage, with almost 66% of the areas currently covered. Of these, 90% had access to high quality networks, such as 3G and 4G.
About 80% of the world's population today has mobile coverage, according to the latest GSMA report. Of these, more than 50% of connections are already on 4G.
In sub-Saharan Africa, there are 456 million unique mobile subscribers, representing 44% of the population, with this proportion expected to increase to 50% by 2025.
The GSMA report predicts that Africa will be the most expanding global region, with a compound annual growth rate of 4,6%. However, the number of mobile broadband subscribers remains significantly low, with 239 million subscribers and a subscription rate of just 23%.
Bringing African people into the mobile economy will require the continued expansion of mobile broadband services, such as 4G, with a predicted 39% membership rate in 2025.
"4G provides an extremely good feature for when switching to 5G later," said Alves. “4G has been deployed extensively in recent years. This constitutes the base structure in the city, leveraging MIMO (multiple entrances and multiple exits) at access points with significant traffic."
By applying a standard known as ENDC (E-UTRAN New Radio - Dual Connectivity), network operators are able to use both process scaling, 4G and 5G, simultaneously.
It is also possible to use a technology called DSS (dynamic spectrum sharing) to allow real-time allocation of spectrum resources between 4G and 5G, depending on network traffic. This can be achieved with millisecond precision.
"Currently, 4G is the main mobile broadband structure and, what is replacing 3G," stated Alves. “But in addition, 4G has flexible features that allow 4G and 5G to work together from the network level.
Industry leaders believe that, in the medium term, 4G will be the framework of choice for global mobile communications, while 5G will be used primarily in more industrial communications.
However, 4G networks already have the resources to guarantee an ideal experience for 5G users, including services such as virtual reality, augmented reality and games in the cloud.
Thus, it makes sense for national networks to invest in 4G to ensure opportunities for future growth, while already supporting cutting-edge 5G capabilities.
Mohammed Madkour, Huawei’s vice president of marketing and global wireless networking solutions, stated, at the AfricaCom 2019 conference in Cape Town last year, that any investment in expanding 4G and organizing resources on site will reduce the amount of money needed to activate 5G in the near future. So every Rand spent on 4G is a Rand invested in 5G. ”
Whether viewed from an operator's perspective, or from a policy perspective, 4G is therefore not just an intermediate step towards 5G. The 4G base already announces the arrival of our future 5G.
