Page 11 - 3GPP Highlights

4G-5G ECOSYSTEM SPECTRUM

The 5G ecosystem of devices and chipsets has continued to grow After the success of gaining high-band millimetric wave
swiftly in 2020. We are reporting 317 announced 5G devices by end spectrum for 5G mobile at the WRC-19 conference in
of June, with a continued rapid rise of commercially available 5G November 2019, with more than 11 GHz of spectrum
devices, now at 135. This is a 60-70% growth compared to January available in most countries for 5G, the WRC-23 spectrum
2020. There are 16 different form factors with Smartphones/phones focus has now moved on to additional mid-band and low-
and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) for Fixed Wireless Access band spectrum to support long term market growth in the
accounting for almost 70% of announcements. second half of this decade. Regulators are actively licensing
5G and GSA recommends that large contiguous amounts of
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has seen growing interest due to
Covid-19 and the demand for a reliable home broadband experience. harmonized spectrum, with suitable regulatory conditions, is
At least 406 MNOs have launched FWA service with many MNOs also made available including low-bands 600/700 MHz, mid-bands
rapidly increased network capacity to satisfy demand that shifted 2.3, 2.6, 3.3-4.2, 4.4-5 GHz and high bands 24.25-29.5/37-
from cities to remote homeworking demonstrating the flexibility 43.5/45.5 GHz – 47.2/47.2 – 48.2 GHz.
of using mobile as the primary broadband service or to enhance an High-band spectrum such as 26/28/40 GHz delivers extreme
existing fixed broadband service. capacity and 800-1000 MHz of contiguous spectrum will be
needed per network as we go into 2021.
The 4G ecosystem is also growing. 831 new 4G devices were
announced in the first 6 months of 2020. 394 (47.4%) were Mid-band spectrum provides such as 3.4-4.2GHz enables
smartphones/phones, 98 of which were Cat-12 device capable or Coverage & Capacity with 80-100 MHz per MNO needed.
higher.
Low-band offers Extended Coverage with up to 20 MHz
channel bandwidth needed from 2020.

5G CONCLUSION

As noted earlier, there is a growing market for stand-alone private Around 10% of MNOs have commercially launched 3GPP
4G and 5G networks for vertical industries. For example, regulators compliant 5G networks and we expect this to accelerate as
in Finland, Germany, Japan, UK and Sweden have either set aside the industry fully adopts 5G in 2020 and 2021. The devices
spectrum for enterprise use or are considering this approach. The ecosystem is developing faster than the 4G ecosystem with a
Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) action of band 48 (3.55 GHz wide range of devices coming to market.
– 3.70 GHz) in the US is also expected to expand the private network By the end of 2021 we expect closer to 40% of MNOs will have
space. MNOs have been providing private networks using licensed launched 5G networks.
spectrum for many years and are a good route for enterprise based
private 4G or 5G. Some enterprise companies may however wish to www.gsacom.com
share MNO spectrum or access their own. We support the use of MNO
spectrum, sharing spectrum and dedicated spectrum for enterprise
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networks, depending on application and needs
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