Here comes 5G . . . well sort of
While Vodafone’s 5G launch at the end of the year will be limited, it is still a step in the right direction,
Vodafone this week announced that it would be bringing 5G to New Zealand as early as December this year.
It’s a great coup for the mobile network operator and its new owners – Infratil and Canadian investor Brookfield, which bought the company for $3.4 billion – who are sure to be happy with the attention the announcement has received.
However, 5G is a complicated technology. And while Vodafone is correct in saying it will be the first to bring the high-speed wireless connectivity to the New Zealand consumer, there are a few caveats here.
As I understand it, Vodafone will be launching 5G using the 3.5GHz spectrum it already owns.
Now bear with me, as there are a few things I need to explain for this to make sense.
The Vodafone 3.5GHz spectrum is a nicely positioned mid-band spectrum that can support 5G.
But it’s not the whole 5G landscape. It’s just a slice of it.
5G is designed to work on the existing LTE frequency range (600MHz to 6GHz) and also in millimetre-wave bands (24-86GHz).
A megahertz represents a million cycles per second, while a gigahertz is a billion cycles per second.
As a rule, the higher-frequency spectrum has the ability to transfer
data faster. However, the speed of higher frequencies is impeded if it has to pass through physical objects such as walls or trees.
This forces carriers to opt for a lower (sub 1-GHz) or mid-range frequency (1-6 GHz). And these frequencies aren’t technically as fast at transferring data in a direct ‘‘line of sight’’ environment, but are much better at carrying data through dense objects (walls).
Vodafone’s 3.5GHz spectrum sits neatly in the middle.
It will be able to deliver a 5G service to consumers, but it won’t be an optimum experience and will only work in certain environments.
For 5G to be the step forward it has the potential to be, it needs to use a feature known as adaptive beam switching.
This feature is designed to let 5G constantly monitor its current signal quality, and speed, compared to other available signals. If/when the mobile handset discovers a better (faster) frequency, it will seamlessly switch over. This technology has been designed to make 5G more reliable.
But make no mistake. This is still very good news for Kiwi consumers (and Vodafone).
New Zealand is lagging behind the rest of the developed world with its 5G infrastructure and its about time we got the ball rolling.
And while Vodafone’s 5G launch in December will be limited, it’s a big step in the right direction.
Limits
Sub-1GHz spectrum is needed to extend high-speed 5G mobile broadband coverage across urban, suburban and rural areas and to help support IoT services: 5G services will struggle to reach beyond urban centres and deep inside buildings without this spectrum.
Spectrums from 1-6GHz offer a good mixture of coverage and capacity for 5G services: It is vital that regulators assign as much contiguous spectrum as possible in the 3.3-3.8 GHz range and also consider the 4.5-5 GHz and 3.8-4.2 GHz14 ranges for mobile use.
Spectrum above 6GHz is needed for 5G services such as ultra-highspeed mobile broadband: 5G will not be able to deliver the fastest data speeds without these bands.
New Zealand is lagging behind the rest of the developed world with its 5G infrastructure and its about time we got the ball rolling.