South Korea's biggest mobile telco says 5G has failed to deliver on its promise
- Reference: 1692599712
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/08/21/sk_telecom_5g_disappointed/
- Source link:
The telco offered that assessment in a recent [1]white paper [PDF] titled "5G Lessons Learned, 6G Key Requirements, 6G Network Evolution, and 6G Spectrum."
The paper opens with an unflattering assessment of 5G, which the authors recall being sold as an enabler of autonomous driving, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAM), extended reality (XR) and digital twins. Those applications were possible, but did not succeed due to a combination of "device form factor constraints, immaturity of device and service technology, low or absent market demand, and policy/regulation issues." The performance of 5G networks was not the issue, the paper argues.
A variety of visionary services were expected, but there was no killer service
The telco argued that some of the goals set out by the UN's international standardization org ITU-R for 5G were met, but many tasks are still far from completion four years into the technology's commercial deployment. Those goals were meant to be realized in the long term – but that expectation was not accurately conveyed to consumers, leading to "excessive expectations."
It's easy to see how consumers might expect a massive step change – as was the case when 3G evolved into LTE and the mobile internet became vastly more usable. But 5G consists of incremental improvements continually rolling out on top of existing technology – meaning users will be less likely to notice them.
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Despite these challenges, 5G has delivered some wins. SK Telecom's paper pointed to a 70 percent reduction in data cost per gigabyte compared to LTE. Customers on 5G therefore use 50 percent more data than those tied to the previous generation standard.
It is necessary to design an architecture that can maintain service quality, including speed experienced by customers, at a level equal to or higher than that of existing services
The white paper suggests 6G – which is already in development and expected to debut in 2030 – can avoid the mistakes made with 5G.
For instance, the telco argues that all participants in the ecosystem should work together – which could result in expanded use cases, better spectrum management, more use of open interfaces, and simpler architecture options.
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By being very clear about which products and services 6G can enable, stakeholders can best set goals for the standard and prevent fragmented architecture – all while managing public expectations about the kind of services that will result.
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"It is necessary to design an architecture that can maintain service quality, including speed experienced by customers, at a level equal to or higher than that of existing services," the paper suggests.
It's 2023 so there's gotta be some AI
The success of 6G, SK Telecom's paper argues, will also depend on the development of AI and sensing technology, without which the technologies that will lean on this next generation of cellular broadband networks won't perform. Many of those technologies are just more developed versions of ones already cited for 5G – like autonomous driving, XR, UAM, and digital twins. For example, Level 4 full autonomous driving will require 6G.
SK Telecom suggested that it plans to take the lead in developing 6G technology, and contribute to Korea becoming a global ICT leader. Other leaders include the US and China – the latter of which began its 6G-related research in 2017. Japan and the EU are also making their own efforts.
But not everyone is focused on 6G. According to the [9]Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) , worldwide 5G consumer connections surpassed one billion at the end of 2022 and are expected to reach two billion by the end of 2025.
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That growth is to come from markets in Asia Pacific and Latin America – like Brazil and India, who have just started their 5G journeys.
And for all the doom and gloom on 5G, GSMA declared it "the fastest generational roll-out, when compared to 3G and 4G" – which really ought to count for something. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://newsroom-prd-data.s3.ap-northeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SKT6G-White-PaperEng_v1.0_web.pdf
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/31/asia_tech_news_in_brief/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/15/return_to_office_survey/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/04/jac_emissions_best_practices/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/18/chatgpt_political_bias/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZOM1w9YGgcmfJPiZb-ZhYQAAAwU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[9] https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/second-wave-of-5g-30-countries-to-launch-services-in-2023/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZOM1w9YGgcmfJPiZb-ZhYQAAAwU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
So far I've only got 5G on visits to London. I've been less than impressed as the phone will seek out any 5G network even if there is a better 4G signal available. I checked this with the OpenSignal app, doing a speed test with 5G, then forcing the phone to only connect to 4G and retesting. 5G was worse and I just ended up using half my monthly data allowance in one day.
...5G was over-hyped, has under-delivered...
And you needed expensive research to come to that conclusion? Anybody with any brain knew it from the start how this was being done.
And 6G will be hyped just as hard, if not harder, and will put us all on the Moon, really, (pinky-swear) promise! Surely, 6G will enable us to use our flying cars and let us all rule like kings and queens.
Ahahahaha!
Yeah. It's not like these forums were full of people expressing this view. Like, from when 5G was being introduced.
3G & 4G were noticeable improvements for the end user. I'm not sure 5G is such a game changer. For many use cases 4G is perfectly usable - providing you get a signal. I think the only thing 5G has done for the consumer is get more frequencies which equates to more network capacity. 6G will be a "rinse & repeat" of 5G.
Just as the pace of innovation in smart phones and slowed, so has the pace of mobile network innovation.
The focus of the target user has changed.
For those who weren't in Cannes in 2003 for 3GSM World Congress (the event now known as MWC and now held in Barcelona), you may not known that 3G really stands for "Girls, Games and Gambling" - at least according to those of us who were there. It pretty much achieved its goal of enabling mobile access to internet gaming and porn websites. 4G has also pretty much achieved its goal of making mobile the primary device of choice for consumer access to internet-based services even, now, at some pretty tough locations.
5G was different. It was always intended, by the engineers who developed it, to be for new business services. Of course it had to do consumer stuff at least as well as 4G, and a bit faster (to enable some higher def video) - which it achieved but which is not a game changer for consumer services. Consumers expect each phone to last a few years, and when they change it to get better video - it's just par for the course.
The problem here wasn't the engineers or the suppliers. It was the networks. They wanted to justify all this spending - and to justify their acquisition of valuable radio spectrum to stop their competitors getting it - so they promised stuff that 5G was never designed to achieve! Mobile network innovation continues at a very rapid pace. It just isn't really anything affecting the consumer experience.
Customers on 5G therefore use 50 percent more data
I'm suspicious of drawing general conclusions from such observations: the consumption of mobile data is often more constrained by tariffs than by technology. The visitor tariffs I've seen for South Korea seem to offer unlimited data for a fixed period (which may be hours of use or elapsed days) so it's not unexpected that a greater bandwidth might lead to greater usage. I can't see tariffs that are priced per GB showing the same results.
I have a 5G phone and the biggest disappointment is the poor thermal management: if you attempt a video call over 5G the phone will eventually shut down because of overheating: the haste to ship 5G products has simply resulted in devices that are materially worse than the previous generation for a given price point and that's hardly likely to inspire consumer confidence.
I'd happily have 5G as an alternative to fixed-line broadband (assuming it came with a routable address) but the problem seems to be that telcos never want the market that exists but are always trying to find one that is magically more lucrative.
Wait, what?
You mean people don't care about having UHD videos with 7.1 sound on a 7" screen?
People really don't want to walk around with augmented reality goggle's on?
Next you'll be telling me no one really notices the difference between 4g and 5g.
Re: Wait, what?
and in the Antipodes, Oz to be precise, the rollout of 5G is accompanied by a drop in 4G signal in rural areas in my bitter experience. The main Oz telco has responded to 5G rollout by increasing costs, again, as usual. I suspect 6G will acheive the ultimate goal of absolute no communications. But then, the Ministry of Truth being shovelled thru the Oz excuse for a parliament will make all communications potentially expensive
5G Sucks!
I can't tell you the number of times I've had two or three bars of signal, tried to use the browser and.... nothing. Look at the icon and it's 5G. Every. Damned. Time. On 4G if I have any signal at all pages load. Maybe slowly, but they load.
Please oh please phone makers give us a way to force the radio back to 4G. I'm so tired of marketing driving the experience in reverse.
I recently bought a Samsung A54 5G but have yet to see it connect to any 5G networks.
Here in Thailand on DTAC there do not seem to be any 5G, including a recent trip to Bangkok.
While visiting Singapore SingTels data packages are not 5G. You have to buy a 5G booster package, to enable 5G on the package you have already bought.
So best I have seen is a 4G+ symbol on my phone, whatever means. To be honest its all alphabet soup and I too am skeptical of the benefits, my phone seems to work fine.