Observation: 5G-A commercial deployment has begun

In the past five years, a new generation of information technology led by 5G has been widely used.

In the midfield, 5G-A will further unleash the potential of the network, promote the sustainable development of 5G business, and usher in a new era.

Industrial chain consensus

The first year of 5G-A commercialization began

At present, global communication operators and equipment vendors are actively deploying and innovating in the field of 5G-A - many mobile communication companies and operators around the world have released 5G-A-related technical products and services, and nearly 60 companies have jointly released the "Embrace the First Year of 5.5G Commercialization" initiative. At present, more than 30 operators around the world have completed 5G-A related technology verification. In China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries, 5G-A has entered the commercial deployment stage.

It is worth mentioning that in December 2023, a number of operators in the Middle East jointly proposed to determine 2024 as the first commercial year of 5G-A. Zain believes that 5G-A will definitely bring about change. "With 5G SA-based Massive MIMO and carrier aggregation technologies such as 3CC, 4CC, and 5CC, 5G-A can deliver higher performance." 5G-A brings not only high performance, but also new solutions. It is reported that Zain has already started 5G-A testing, testing new solutions such as RedCap and passive IoT, and in terms of high performance, it has also tested Massive MIMO and carrier aggregation of 3CC, 4CC, 5CC and higher. "Through testing, we are technically ready for 5G-A deployment. Alan Loh said.

China is accelerating the commercial construction of 5G-A. China Mobile said that 2024 is the first year of 5G-A commercialization, and China Mobile will use the 5G-A technology evolution window to achieve new breakthroughs in the value driven by technology and market, promote the commercial use of three-carrier aggregation in key cities across the country and the large-scale deployment of RedCap across the country, promote the development and industrial maturity of new technologies such as synaesthesia integration and passive IoT, build intelligent differentiated experience, and promote the scale development of innovative services such as new calls and cloud phones. China Mobile will start building a 5G-A business model this year, improve 5G-A infrastructure, promote 5G-A application scenarios, strengthen the 5G-A industry ecology, and strive to achieve full commercial use of 5G-A by 2026. On March 28, China Mobile announced the official commercial use of 5G-Advanced. At the same time, mobile phone manufacturers have followed up to say that 5G-A mobile phones are coming.

China Telecom believes that 5G-A will bring new capabilities and experiences in all aspects of new communications, new connections, new computing power, new intelligence, new security, and new vision, continue to help customers create greater value and new experiences, and provide more possibilities for partners to build a new ecosystem. China Telecom has also completed the large-scale deployment of 100 stations of three-carrier aggregation (3CC) in many provinces and cities, and explored the implementation of 5G-A key technologies in industries such as steel, mining, and healthcare. China Telecom continues to strengthen the practice of new 5G-A technology innovation, leading more than 30 3GPP international standards, forming more than 600 patents, and working with Huawei and other manufacturers to continue innovation pilots to ensure advanced network evolution.

China Unicom is actively promoting the pilot and model construction of 5G-A networking to improve network performance and service assurance capabilities. Previously, China Unicom released the "Top Ten Innovation Demonstration Achievements of 5G-A", bringing a new paradigm for the development of the global 5G-A industry. For example, in the field of P-IOT, China Unicom cooperated with Shanghai Baowu Iron and Steel to build the first 5G-A P-IOT passive IoT pilot, which realized the transparent management of the whole process of steel coil warehousing and warehousing for the first time, laying a good foundation for leveraging the low-speed IoT 100 billion market in the future...... China Unicom's two main businesses, namely networked communication and computing, digital intelligence, have developed in a coordinated manner, and the network capability has been continuously enhanced, and the supply of computing power has been continuously enriched. China Unicom actively promotes the pilot and model construction of 5G-A networking to achieve 10Gbps ultra-large downlink, 1Gbps intelligent uplink and service assurance capabilities.

On the whole, the whole industry chain has reached a consensus, and the standards and paths have been clear. This lays the foundation for the commercial deployment of 5G-A. It is reported that more than 15 operators are expected to have commercial 5G-A in 2024.

Multi-ability combination

Promote 5G-A into the commercial fast lane

5G-A has entered a new stage of integration between networks and industry-wide scenarios, and the development of the industry chain is accelerating. The first standard version of 3GPP, 5G-A (version 18), will be frozen in 2024H1. In 2023, chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung have released three 5G-A baseband chips. 11 commercial smartphones have 5G-A chip hardware capabilities, and terminal manufacturers have launched a variety of 5.5G-ready hardware CPEs......

Qualcomm has released the X80 5G modem, which realizes the perfect integration of 5G-A and AI. "The Snapdragon X80 5G modem is Qualcomm's latest modem product for 5G Advance, combining AI with unmatched spectrum flexibility, power efficiency and performance," said Mingjuan Hou, vice president of Qualcomm. According to reports, the Snapdragon X80 5G modem and RF system architecture can provide 5G-A readiness across multiple product segments. The Snapdragon X80 5G modem and RF system are currently being sampled, and commercial devices equipped with the platform are expected to be released in the second half of 2024.

Wang Dahai, Senior Director of Product Planning of UNISOC Marketing Department, said: "On the one hand, 5G RedCap helps 5G penetrate into the lower price segment, and on the other hand, it inherits the new scenarios and use cases of 5G toB that has been explored before, and opens up a new blue ocean of empowerment. It is hoped that in terms of 5G toB, the use cases that have been expanded and explored in the past can achieve greater explosion on RedCap, and can truly make 5G industrial interconnection bigger and stronger. The 5G experience and use cases summarized in the past five years can be better and more solid through 5G-A, which is also a useful exploration of 6G. ”

Du Guobin, CEO of MeiG Intelligence, said: "MeiG Intelligence has launched a 10 Gigabit 5G-A FWA solution. Powered by Qualcomm's latest 5G-A baseband chip, the product has already been first tested and certified in the Middle East and North America, and is expected to ship in the second quarter of this year. With the expansion of 5G-A, it is believed that FWA will also have some good applications in some typical application scenarios in China, such as large conference systems, rail transit, exhibition halls, including some small and medium-sized enterprises. ”

brief summary

The 5G-A era has arrived, which is not only an upgrade of technology, but also an innovation of business models and the reconstruction of ecosystems. The entire industry chain needs to work together to fully unleash the potential of 5G and 5G-A networks, activate new engines, and bring new value.

END

Editor-in-charge/layout: Wang Yurong

Reviewer: Wang Tao, Mei Yaxin

Producer: Liu Qicheng

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