IHS notes in a new report that poor LTE experiences tainting 4G, 5G pool
A new report from IHS found that half of global service providers surveyed have begun to deploy tenants of true 4G networks, however most consumers think they already have access to 4G services, which the research firm said sets a bad precedent.
In a snippet from its “2015 IHS Infonetics 4G and 5G Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey,” IHS said it found interband carrier aggregation was the most common LTE-Advanced features being deployed by mobile operators, though customers are not getting a true 4G experience.
“We are slowly but surely moving to true 4G, and that’s good news,” said Stéphane Téral, research director for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at IHS. “However, most users already believe they are on 4G, and that’s the bad news because the experience is far from consistent and is falling short of expectations. How many times does your smartphone display LTE or 4G and you still see the infamous spinning wheel?”
Téral added that the current hype around “5G” services is likely to add to the confusion, though the move toward a true 5G standard should help moderate the impact.
“The 5G debate has started with great fanfare, hype and confusion, but little substance about what it is exactly and what it is not,” Téral said. “For now, the mindset is still locked into mobile broadband as we know it with LTE, so it’s good that the [International Telecommunications Union] has just stepped in to define 5G in its brand new IMT-2020.”
Of vendors providing LTE equipment, the survey found Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia were perceived by mobile operators as the top outlets for their equipment needs.
In perhaps a blow to the current hype surrounding network functions virtualization, IHS also predicted the migration to NFV “won’t happen any time soon,” citing “the bulk of LTE networks are brand new and, therefore, mobile operators are not ready to undertake migration that soon.”
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