By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
kramkhalawan@caribmagplus.com
With the world jumping on the 5G wagon, Caribbean Mobile Operators are looking at what it will take to also come onboard. The 5G revolution has been touted to be the biggest bandwidth allowing for larger quantities of sharing technology.
This was the topic at CANTO Caribbean’s CONNECT TWO online symposium as telecommunication operators in the region discussed just how prepared Caribbean nations are ready for this change and how it will affect its coverage.
Tim Burke, vice president of technology and products at C&W Communications sought to paint a picture of how it works, likening the 5G network to having a larger pipe where you can throw larger quantities of water down the drain, or in technology terms, allow for more bits to be shared.
Currently the 4G used in local networks, allows for three bits per hertz (3 bps/Hz), while the 5G multiplies this by three, allowing nine bits per hertz. And while it might be suggested to reallocate the current 4G spectrum or re-farm it to 5G, this means moving to higher frequencies where the spectrum ranges in over 400MHz.
However, higher frequencies do not mean greater coverage, only greater capacity. Burke says lower frequencies allow for penetrating through areas forested or populated with buildings, something critical to ensuring coverage is maintained when moving through rural areas, making it the difference between the two networks, and why newspaper articles have described 5G as being slow since its coming on stream in the United States.
In explaining the reasoning why 5G appears to be sluggish, he says Mobile operators are able to deploy and activate 5G at moderate costs using existing spectrums, staying in the lower 850 MHz frequencies. However, 5G operates at a similar rate to 4G, making the both indistinguishable among most of its customers as it remains functioning on the 4G range.
He adds that to get operators fully functioning on the 5G, spending must go into creating more towers which will add to the speed at which high-capacity technology is shared, the downfall being it this does not happen often and making it not so much the anticipated game changer in internet speed.
As to what will make the difference, he says a new spectrum must be created at the lower frequencies to work alongside the higher frequency blocks, but this comes at a hefty price tag, often passed down to the consumer through the operators.
Costs incur in the number of radios and antennas needed to make this spectrum work, with maintenance another issue, while customers will be required to upgrade their handsets. To Burke, he says sustainable economics require a decrease in costs and higher revenues to meet capacity growth that allows for these technologies.
This means deployment of 5G will be difficult for lower revenue countries and while its here to stay, its practicality makes it a strain for the average consumer who remain mostly indoors and not necessarily near a tower.
Giovanni King, chief of operations at the Bureau of Telecommunications and Post in Curacao, explored the impact this would have on regulators in the region.
He says providing this service, means network slicing would occur, where certain services will be allotted at different levels. This can cause discrepancies to arise among providers, as well as the quality of service received by the consumer.
King says in Curacao, fiber deployment has become a requirement, as they believe connectivity increases and higher speeds are guaranteed, reducing issues related to connecting base stations using different forms of frequencies or microwaves.
His advice to neighbouring small islands that are charged with providing to a limited amount of households, is ensuring efficiency and guaranteeing the operator gets a reasonable return on its investment and its infrastructure through sharing passive network elements among operators.
Their policy is to create a single open access fiber infrastructure so operators can share and cut their costs, while it facilitates cooperative and collaborative relations with its providers through active elements within the network.
King added that Curacao was looking at small cell densification, this means other government ministries or departments along with utility companies were sharing infrastructure. However, it also meant looking at how these frequencies worked with neighbouring countries and over the ocean space. He says in his experience they have had to work with Venezuela in ensuring there were no negative effects from the frequencies dispersed from their towers.
Mike Antonius Telesur’s chief executive officer, spoke to the journey his company as a telecommunications operator has had to face in coming to 5G transformation.
For him the growth in technology investment in the region means being able to provide reliable services to foreign industries they have grown accustomed to within their native land.
Over the years, he says CANTO has always spoken to the digital divide that has long existed in the region, yet becoming fully prepared to what all nations would face in 2020, was something never foreseen. The Telesur ceo says the technological revolution that is surely upon us, is similar to the industrial revolution which took place in the 1800s. With e-commerce and trade now a big part of how we conduct business at all levels, there needs to be a digital transformation.
He says offering 5G means attracting investors from across the globe.
But to average user, while this was not such a necessity, our data usage in the past year with children learning remotely and many working from home, streaming video conferencing and shared media, 5G makes it somewhat easier in its flow. And according to Burke, for those in rural areas, accessibility through mobile hotspots become a little more reliable for such heavy data usage, where compression technology offered with 5G, assists in transmitting audio and video. Burke added that with trends showing growth in the number of consumers utilizing these systems, 5G within the region means it can only move forward.