“5G is ready for business,” Ericsson exec says
HONG KONG–Qualcomm Technologies President Cristiano Amon opened up the company’s 4G/5G Summit by telling the assembled crowd that 5G “will be a reality” next year as networks go live in the U.S., Asia and Europe, and commercial devices hit the market. Qualcomm has marked a number of milestones in developing 3GPP-compliant 5G New Radio technologies with Ericsson, most recently completing an over-the-air, standards-based call in sub-6 GHz spectrum using a mobile form factor device
In fact, on stage during the event, the two companies streamed video using Band 7 lent by operator SmarTone and 28 GHz spectrum applied by OFCA ; Ericsson provided a 5G radio and Qualcomm its mobile test platform.
Ericsson’s Thomas Noren, vice president and head of 5G commercialization, was on hand to tout the two firm’s relationship and the benefits coming with the next-generation of cellular. He said that 5G, as compared to LTE, can take down the cost to transmit a bit to “maybe a tenth of what it was,” which is “incredibly important,” given that mobile data traffic doubles approximately every 18 months.
Noren did note that, although this represents significant cost savings for operators, “Consumers don’t necessarily want to pay a hell of a lot more,” for 5G services. “Our customers are our operators but we are intrigued by the fact a lot of enterprises are now coming to Ericsson…to digitalize industries, to make operations more efficient. They want to cut the cords in their factories.”
“The need for 5G is really here,” he said. ” We see an enormous growth in networks. We are exploring new growth opportunities that goes beyond traditional mobile broadband smartphones” to include fixed wireless access, internet of things, and digital transformation of industries and enterprises. ‘
“5G is really ready for business,” Noren said.
