5G is the next-generation mobile technology and will transform the role of mobile in society. The 5G era will commence in full form in 2020, creating huge opportunities for consumers, enterprises, operators, vendors and all stakeholders. With new bands coming into the picture i.e. the mm-Wave, the scope of applications that the network would be able to provide under 5G technology would be very different.

Large Bandwidth for supporting high data rates, efficient use of spectrum through spectrum sharing techniques, use of the unlicensed band for offloading traffic would be some of many aspects to look into in the current deployment of this technology. The aim of 5G wireless technology is to offer higher multi-Gbps peak data rates, ultra-low latency, higher reliability, huge network power, improved availability, and more reliable user experience to more devices. The top 5 regions for 5G adoption would be South Korea, U.S., Japan, China, and Europe.

Figure  1: 5G Connections as a share of total connections by 2025 (Accessible in PDF Version) 

Mobile Generation Evolution

Mobile technology has steadily improved since the 1980s when the first mobile phones were introduced using 1G technology. The different generations of mobile technology use a variety of spectrum (radio frequency). 5G will use a range of spectrum as it develops and expands on the current 4G mobile technology to support new use cases that can be grouped into three categories.

Figure 2: Evolution of Mobile Technology (Accessible in PDF Version) 

Use Cases

Figure 3: Use Cases, phase 1,2,3 (Accessible in PDF Version) 

The Three Main Use Cases of 5G

1. Enhanced Mobile Broadband: With the guarantee of 10 Gbps of bandwidth and less than 5 milliseconds of latency, it is no wonder that the continued growth in demand for mobile connectivity will accelerate dramatically. The industry predicts that this increased speed would result in a 10-to 100-fold rise in the number of 5G-connected devices over the number of 4G-connected devices.

2. The Internet of Things (IoT): Thanks to 5G’s virtualized, agnostic-radio technology core, published predictions estimate as many as 20 billion IoT connections by 2020—connections that will drive smart buildings and smart cities. According to predictions 5G will offer up to 1,000 times the bandwidth of 4G and up to five times the density, making room for all those “things” on the network.

3. High-reliability, low latency networks: Beyond what 4G is doing better and quicker, 5G opens new doors to allow driverless cars to communicate across the network, enabling the network to be augmented. Reality and virtual reality and expanding the horizons of remote surgery and other applications that can fulfill their promise only on a network with such ultra-low latency times as 5G’s five-billion-second threshold.

Figure 4 & 5: Expected Economic Impact of 5G (Accessible in PDF Version) 

The above graphs informs us about the expected economic impact of 5G on the specific sectors mentioned. This paves a way for automotive manufacturing and hence Manufacturing & Utilities are impacted on a greater scale. 

The applications according to the sectors are mentioned below. This informs us how the application of 5g would benefit these individual sectors.

Automation: Knowledge exchange between vehicles in real time. Provision of details to the drivers on the road ahead. Improve safety and performance. 

Manufacturing: Usage in time-critical activities. Automation of the process. Remote control of Machines.

Health: Usage of robotics for operation/remote Surgery

Media and Entertainment: Live-experience, interactive media and collaborative on-site. Gaming focused on virtual reality. 3D presentation of sports from home.

Energy: Control of grid connectivity for back haul and grid backbone. Balancing energy supply and demand.

Industry Overview

The Market which was at $1.36 billion in 2019 is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.30% (2019 to 2027) at touch $3.85 billion by 2027.

Drivers:

• Scale and improve user experience as capacity grows.
• Avoid Significant Hardware Modifications
• Use Cloud-Based Virtualization
• Ease the deployment of new features and technology with the scale
• Enable flexibility and create new opportunities for competition
• Provide open interfaces and open source development
• Easier and faster inter-operability
• Allow multi-vendor deployment with off-the-shelf hardware

Restraints:

• Ethical issues faced during study/research & cybersecurity threats

Opportunities:

• Integration of Artificial Intelligence with BCI

Industry Competitive Landscape

Commercial 5G network networks and 5G hardware are supposed to eventually replace the existing 2G/3G/4G products and make up c. By 2035, 80% of the market. In the short term, FWA could become one of the main applications for 5G. The 5G Fixed Wireless Access market is projected to grow from less than USD 1 billion in 2019 to nearly USD 50 billion by 2026 (97 per cent annual growth).

Forecasts

Forecasts for 5G technology need to be viewed in the light of the pledge made by a range of providers and national ministries to implement networks before the 5G-standardization process has been completed. This method is partially realistic. Operators expecting a capacity shortage by the end of this decade would need to deploy new technologies to sustain service levels. They cannot wait for the standardization process to be completed.

Countries want to put themselves at the forefront of technological growth, and they are unveiling 5G networks at major global events that they will host. This means that initial 5G implementations in a commercial (or semi-commercial) sense will not be completely 5G networks as specified by us as they will not be accredited to meet the 5G requirements – that will of course, be impossible. For this reason, the predictions include as what is defined as early 5G networks and completely 5G networks.

Early 5G networks go beyond the capabilities of LTE-Advanced infrastructures, meeting one or more of the characteristics set out above as being mandatory before it is considered the network as a 5G network. Following the completion of the standardization process (currently scheduled for 2020), it is expected that these early 5G networks to be rapidly accredited as completely compliant.

Few operators will launch early 5G networks – only around 10–15 early 5G commercial launches are planned. It is expect that by the end of 2025 over 270 operators would have launched some kind of commercial 5G services, but it should be noted that this does not mean that these networks would be widespread – coverage could be restricted to dense urban areas. Only networks using modern air interface technologies are included in our forecasts.