FEATURE


South Korea had a trial 5G network operational for the recent


Winter Olympics and Japan is planning to deploy it as a key part of the 2020 Summer Olympics. China is expected to have 40% of the worldwide 5G connections by 2025, and the USA has opened up a lot of high-frequency spectrum for the benefit of 5G in the future. It was very proactive in the rollout of 4G and has excellent coverage. It now looks set to repeat this approach with 5G – making it available in some cities as early as Q4 of 2018. Whilst Europe hosts the biggest event in the mobile industry calendar – the mobile world congress in Barcelona – the continent is lagging behind. However, the UK might actually benefit from Brexit in this area; it has the potential to move faster than the rest of the EU and make the necessary radio spectrum available sooner. We’re already auctioning spectrum; the EU has only just agreed which spectrums to make available. The UK Government regularly talks about the strength of the country’s digital economy. For that to succeed, grow and attract inward investment, we need the right infrastructure; to be at the forefront, not lagging behind the rest of the world. Investment in 5G technology will need to be paid for. Yet


the network operators are facing revenue pressures from applications such as WhatsApp, and a 40% decline in text message volumes over the last 4-5 years. This is a big drop in revenues. Therefore, it’s likely that 5G will cost the customer more.


And we’ll certainly need to buy new phones. So, when you are signing your next mobile phone contract consider how long you’ll keep it, whether you really want the phone as well, or if you’d be better going SIM free?


The opportunity


5G represents a great opportunity for the UK. It can now, if it chooses, make up for the mistakes it made over 4G and the current terrible lack of broadband availability. This is the time to become genuine leaders in Europe. But the government and Ofcom need to hold the operators accountable for failures to deliver and they need to be radical about releasing the capacity within the spectrum. In the same way it encouraged the oil industry with tax breaks perhaps the UK Government and Ofcom should be looking to do something similar with companies hoping to exploit the capabilities of 5G.


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