OTTAWA – Conversations around 5G in Canada may still be at nascent stages, but network providers and wireless operators told a Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association event in Ottawa on Wednesday that it’s coming faster than you think.
Several speakers throughout the day at the 5G Canada Council show (organized by the CWTA) noted that network rollouts are already happening and that by the first half of 2019 smartphones and tablets will be able to access 5G networks in certain bands.
Jaco du Plooy, chief technology officer at Ericsson Canada, explained that there will be 5G devices operating in a number of bands (3.5 GHz, 28 GHz and 39 GHz) in the first half of 2019. The second half of that year will see handheld devices running over 5G networks in the 600 MHz, 700 MHz and 900 MHz bands.
Others, while not disagreeing with the Ericsson executive, suggested that lower band deployments will happen earlier rather than later, and the upper millimetre wave deployments will take place around 2020.
The fifth generation mobile network promises many advancements over current 4G networks, including faster connections, greater capacity and much lower latency. It’s important to understand, said many speakers, that not all of these benchmarks will be reached on each and every single band.
For example, a 400 MHz wide channel in the 28 GHz band could offer greater than Gigibit speeds, while a 5G network operating in the 600 MHz range could offer up to 100 Mbps downloads in a 10 MHz paired block.
Several speakers noted that the cost of devices will come down in price as 5G rolls out and noted the price decrease will largely result from devices having less intelligence embedded in them. As Bruce Rodin, VP of wireless technologies at Bell Canada noted, when there is intelligence in the cloud three milliseconds away, there is no need to have all that smarts in the device itself.
Still some may question why the sector needs to move to the next generation at all. Micheal Murphy, chief technology officer at Nokia, explained that at some point in the early to mid 2020s 4G LTE is going to max out and will no longer be able to handle the growth in demand and thirst for capacity.
Besides, he added, when a network can provide 10 times the capacity while also delivering one-tenth the latency, moving to this type of network is inevitable.
"It’s attached to the services they can provide to the vehicle because that vehicle will be connected." – Grant Courville, BlackBerry
While current generation of wireless networks still have a large applicability to consumers, the 5G networks of the future are more for business verticals, said some attendees. The auto sector is one that is looking to benefit from the next wireless network.
Grant Courville, head of product management, automotive and embedded at BlackBerry QNX, said the connected car is a major initiative for automakers. He noted that V2X (vehicle to everything) is the application carmakers are most focused on at the moment. V2X is really a group of applications based on road safety. It refers to vehicle to grid, vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to pedestrian or vehicle to network.
To enable these types of applications, the car companies need access to a network that is ultra reliable, and with low latency. These services will help automakers pay for their investments in the connected car. Courville noted that the revenue an automaker can get from the vehicle “isn’t attached to the vehicle itself in the future. It’s attached to the services they can provide to the vehicle because that vehicle will be connected.”
While the U.S. and parts of Asia (China and Korea) are leading the efforts on 5G, Canada is well placed to be a big beneficiary. Damian Poltz, VP of technology strategy and networks at Shaw Communications, explained that a focused and stable regulatory environment is an advantage, as is Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s (ISED) early commitment to 5G.
Even though Canada has advantages when it comes to 5G, there are obstacles to be removed before this next generation network can get fully deployed. David Watt, senior VP of regulatory affairs at Rogers Communications, noted that the existing requirements around antenna siting consultations are a little cumbersome in a 5G network scenario.
Since this network is going to be significantly more dense, meaning there will be a lot more of them, consulting on every single antenna or siting isn’t going to work. This means, he said, the Telecommunications Act should be amended to grant wireless access to municipal rights of way much like it is for wireline.
Paul Cowling, VP of legal and regulatory affairs at Shaw, added that the Telecom Act should be strengthened to ensure that the CRTC has the jurisdiction over electric utilities and their poles. This is particularly timely because the Ontario Energy Board is considering a proposal to double the rates for access to poles.
This was the inaugural event for the 5G Canada Council.
