In the fourth and final instalment of a series of articles in advance of this year’s Broadband World Forum, Niall Hunt, the digital content lead for the event, explores how preparations for 5G are progressing, this time focusing on the impact of 5G on fixed line operators.
From faster speeds and lower latency, to improved reliability and the introduction of innovative use cases, 5G is set to transform network infrastructure like nothing else.
In a world that’s always connected, network operators need to be able to scale their existing 4G networks, while transitioning to 5G and maintaining profitability. This is no mean feat. The road to 5G is likely to be long and tricky for operators to navigate, with a high-performance fibre network seen as the critical component to commercial success
Successfully negotiating this journey will be essential to remaining competitive in a data-driven future, as 5G will solve many of the major challenges for globally transformative applications such as self-driving vehicles, smart grids and public safety systems.
The rise of 5G will therefore present a mix of risk and reward for operators. But what about fixed operators specifically? Should they be concerned about the technology’s rapid evolution, or see it as an opportunity to upgrade their infrastructure and transform their operations?
Opportunity knocks
The pattern will be a familiar one for anyone working in the telecoms industry. A new generation of wireless technology comes long promising improved speeds, capacity and performance, and is shortly followed by predictions of the death of fixed networks.
5G is no different, but fixed operators have no need to fear, as they will actually have a key role to play in the future of mobile infrastructure. For example, as mobile and wireless technologies strive to provide more bandwidth and greater efficiency in the face of exploding customer demand, the more they will rely on the support of fixed network infrastructure.
And many fixed network operators have already put themselves in a position to respond to this growing reliance. Over the past decade, as they have been building out fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, they’ve also been laying the groundwork for new opportunities for fixed-wireless convergence.
So, despite the usual concerns, many opportunities will emerge for fixed network operators over the coming years, primarily as a result of 5G needing an unprecedented amount of capacity due to the volume of devices and data it will support.
Fixed network providers can therefore play a significant role in mobile evolution, as long as they are prepared to view 5G as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Three key roles
For the full potential of 5G to be realised, mobile technology must be backed by a fixed network. The high capacity and high speed that fibre delivers makes it the ideal foundation to deal with the unprecedented amount of data 5G is expected to generate, providing both fronthaul and backhaul.
This need for fixed networks to be integrated seamlessly presents a huge opportunity for fixed-line operators. In the future, we’ll likely see a much closer alignment between mobile and fixed operators as their importance becomes clearer, with three key roles set to emerge.
Firstly, fixed-line operators have an advantage in areas where they own assets such as fibre poles, cabinets and rights of way to buildings. Having infrastructure in proximity to future small cell demands creates a competitive advantage, allowing them to serve these small cells very economically.
These same assets provide a competitive differentiator when it comes to co-location. To reduce overall latency, service providers will need to put data much closer to end-users. As such, there are opportunities for fixed-line providers to lease out rack space at their cell sites to content providers, who are then able to deliver content to their subscribers at much lower latency.
This is a service fixed operators can change a premium for – as long as their infrastructure is modernised for 5G, such as by creating new locations for hosting future workloads.
Ultimately, the assets fixed-line operators own can be used to enable wholesale opportunities, or as a way to venture into 5G deployments. Operators are starting to realise that having a fixed-access network is a competitive advantage when deploying 5G, since they can use that access network to connect consumers and business and help providers accelerate the roll-out of 5G networks.
Finally, the fixed-line broadband market will have a key role to play in providing ultra-fast speeds and greater coverage/availability. When building out 5G networks, operators will quickly realise that cell sites are going to get smaller, which will require more cell sites to be built closer to the end users.
Operators then need to connect all those cell sites, which effectively means a 5G network will largely be a big fibre network, with a short distance of 5G at the end. Since fixed-access networks already connect every street and every building, they can be used to connect 5G small cells for faster and more cost-effective deployments.
Ultimately, 5G may force fixed operators to adjust their operations, but it is by no means a death knell. Plenty of opportunities will emerge, especially for those fixed operators that are prepared to embrace the changes coming their way.
Discover more about what 5G means for converged operators at Broadband World Forum on the 23-25 October at the Messe, Berlin. It is the only event that brings together all the key players and building blocks of network technology.
Explore the exhibition with a Free Visitor Ticket and get access to more than 150 top level vendors, including Huawei, Nokia and many more. Find out more here.
Or purchase a Delegate Pass for full access to the conference and exhibition, giving you access to all keynotes and all four focused tracks. Discover more here.
