ANALYSIS & OPINION: FIBRE & 5G NETWORKS
CUSTOMERS GET A LEVEL OF COMFORT FROM CABLE – IT’S A TANGIBLE PIECE OF NETWORK TECHNOLOGY
of access, it should always depend on the business case and other network backhaul considerations.
Pros and cons You have to weigh-up performance versus cost and capacity requirements, and the part that design and engineering play in the network build. Tere are pros and cons for fibre and wireless. Customers get a level of comfort from cable – it’s a tangible piece of network technology – that they don’t get from wireless. And fibre offers more network throughput, but it might also involve digging up roads and complicated planning permissions that ramp up the costs. 5G and other wireless technologies can be
deployed much faster and can carry larger data packets than ever before. Te technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, so if the challenge is to deliver broadband to a West Cork village, for example, there’s no doubt that a 5G antenna mounted on a building is much faster and simpler to deploy than fibre to the home. So, it makes perfect sense to me that Imagine
is going with 5G. Up until a year ago I’d have argued that 3G and even 4G were good for mobile but not robust enough for a main home or office connection. Te NBP is not planning
www.fibre-systems.com @fibresystemsmag Communication service providers should take the big-picture view with new network technologies Issue 25 n Autumn 2019 n FiBRE SYSTEMS 29
to use 5G but it will use licensed microwave for access and most likely backhaul roll-out in particularly remote areas of Ireland. It’s a good example of how the two technologies are complementary, and should be deployed where appropriate.
Deadline day Te problem for the NBP with wireless may be timing – it was well advanced before 5G was timetabled, and we still don’t know exactly when it will be commercially available. What we do know is that the EU Commission action plan has targeted the roll-out of 5G into one major city in every member state by 2020, with coverage of the main urban areas by 2025. Why does all this mater? Because of the
demand for ‘pipes’ with ever-higher capacity, faster speeds and lower latency. Te latest in a long line of mind-boggling stats – this one from IDC – is that the 33 zetabytes of data generated in 2018 will grow by 61 per cent to 1,75Z by 2025. It’s not just our insatiable appetite for digital content that has got us talking in terms of zetabytes (a zetabyte
equals a trillion gigabytes), it’s the rise of IoT and plans for smart cities and connected cars. We must be wary, however, because every
new technology comes with hype. One of the large infrastructure providers showcased a massive 5G antenna with huge capacity, but if you put it on a site and pipe it back into copper, it’s not going to perform. Similarly, when fibre networks are laid in the ground, it’s important to remember that, at some point, the traffic will ramp off to something that doesn’t have the same bandwidth. So, it’s imperative that communication
service providers take a big-picture view with new network technologies. We aim to help identify the best combinations, whether it’s backhauling on fibre, and providing the last mile with wireless, or the other way around. We like to think of ourselves as enablers for both our wire and fibre clients, enabling them to deliver the infrastructure that will meet their customer demands in terms of cost, capacity, and performance. n
Ray O'Connor is chief commercial officer at 4site
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