5G Reaching 'Jump Off Point' After Years of Preparation: AT&T

After years of preparation, 5G is about to become real for many consumers, speakers said during a virtual AT&T Policy Forum Tuesday. It's at “the jump off point,” said David Christopher, AT&T executive vice president-partnerships and 5G ecosystem development. “The reality is, it’s early days,” he said.

“Take a long view,” Christopher said. “Remember that we’re talking about a decade of innovation and that we’re just at the beginning, for all intents and purposes,” he said. 4G “redefined our lives as we know them today -- it changed the world,” he said: “Whether it was food you wanted to eat, on-demand car service, social media. … Not only could you refresh your wardrobe overnight, you could stream any movie ever made, almost, and watch live TV from anywhere.”

The 5G decade “will reshape our world again,” Christopher said. There will be “more disruption and innovation in the next decade than we saw in the last two,” he said. 5G is being deployed 40% faster than 4G, 300 million customers already are using 5G and it’s supported by all the major smartphones and a growing list of devices, he said. After spending billions of dollars on networks “we are now at the point poised for the arrival of applications, of services and of new business-models,” he said.

Qualcomm has been working on 5G for more than a decade, and it’s starting to take off, with more than 750 million 5G smartphones expected to ship this year, said John Smee, global head-wireless research. “The cloud continues to grow, but data is not only being processed in the cloud, it’s being processed on the device” and “at the edge of the network where low-latency applications matter,” he said. “We have these powerful devices now at our disposal, but they’re only really powerful if we enable … connectivity,” he said.

Almost every company will create “a digital twin” that can be run virtually, said Ronnie Vasishta, Nvidia senior vice president-telecom. He cited Ericsson’s construction of digital-twin cities in Sweden, accurate in minute details from the locations of trees to the height and composition of buildings. The model can be used to simulate where antennas can be placed to ensure 5G coverage, he said: “You don’t need to do that in the physical world. You can do that in simulation, have your environment set up, and deploy in the physical world.”

Education startup Boddle Learning offers educational games that help students learn at their own pace, aided by artificial intelligence, said co-founder Edna Martinson. “For us, 5G is really helping to improve that gaming experience,” she said: “Connectivity in education has been huge, especially over the past two years, when you look at the shift to hybrid and remote learning.” Many schools still don’t have adequate bandwidth to support digital learning, she said: “5G has the opportunity to change that.”

Changes won’t come “at the end of the decade,” Christopher said: “This is all going to come in a methodical march of innovation.”

Joan Marsh, AT&T executive vice president-federal regulatory relations, said the company still gets questions about 5G. “It seems like the industry, and the mainstream media, have been talking about the potential of 5G technology for many years,” she said: “We are often asked when will 5G be real and how will it really make a difference.”

Nearly 500 operators globally are investing in 5G, about 200 have launched service and almost 100 are investing in a 5G stand-alone network, speakers said during an RCR Wireless webinar Tuesday.

Any of the new generations of wireless are a “journey” and AT&T’s main objectives are to “ensure a high level of customer experience, resiliency and security,” said Raj Savoor, AT&T vice president-network analytics and automation: “Those are our North Star objectives.”

AT&T’s current 5G focus is on deploying C band and other mid-band spectrum “and expanding to use cases that are unique to AT&T's mission in supporting areas like FirstNet,” Savoor said. “Over the horizon” is more investment in artificial intelligence, ultra-low latency and jitter management capabilities “and how we’re positioned for 6G,” he said. Consumers have growing expectations that service will be consistent and resilient “with security built in,” he said. Residential and business customers have similar expectations, he said.

The move to 5G is happening in steps, said Sameh Yamany, Viavi Solutions chief technology officer. “We have seen already the core of the network being cloudified,” he said. “Then we are seeing distribution of edge computing to allow some of the very unique capabilities of artificial intelligence and edge management of very vertical applications,” he said.

The way 5G will be used is driving change, Yamany said. Automotive applications require ultra-low latency and manufacturing high densification, he said. Each app “will have different characteristics that you need to be monitoring and testing,” he said.