Discussion & Paper

CHALLENGES

To achieve growth with 5G in the coming years, we have a few challenges. As a global company, we need to adhere to the governments' policies in various countries. For example, As Song et al. (2019) explained, China's government controls with its grip on the spectrum, consumer specifications, and the endless cellular carrier regulations. It also has a close control on the social media and other data policies of wireless users. To overcome these kinds of issues, Bradley and Rotty proposed a solution balancing both Government and Mobile Network company's interests (BRADLEY & ROTTY, 2019). It is similar to the USA's 1996 Telecommunications Act to establish good deregulation of the telecom industry. We need to discuss with local government bodies to have fair policies.

Another major challenge is technological advancements in developing and underdeveloped countries. For example, mobile networks in other countries might not be as good as mobile networks within the United States. So, to catch up with other countries, we need to have a plan to invest a bit more to enable them to access 5G (Tworek, 2016). There is also a technology called Cooperative, connected, and automated mobility, which will help obtain the network across the borders. The proposed solution given to the multi-country, multi-operator, multi-telco-vendor, and multi-car-manufacturer scenario of any cross-border layout. (Apostolos, et al, 2019)

Reply 2:

Mobile networks have evolved through a series of generations, each representing significant technological improvements over the previous generations. The latest technology is the 5G network, which promises even faster speeds and greater bandwidth compared with 4G while reducing interference with other nearby wireless devices. The 5G wireless standard aims to be global -- which is the hard part, because each participating country (e.g., China, Russia, South Korea) or amalgamated body of countries (e.g., the EU, the UN) will maintain its own definition of 5G networks, its own concepts of 5G speed, and its own regulations for where 5G transmissions may take place. In November 2018, the US Federal Communications Commission began an auction for exclusive segments of spectrum in the 28 GHz band, soon to be followed by bids in the 24 GHz band, for exclusive use by the winning bidders. The following month, the FCC unanimously approved a plan to make more spectrum in the 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz bands available for the highest-speed communications tier for 5G wireless, called millimeter-wave (mmWave). Broadly speaking, 5G is used across three main types of connected services, including enhanced mobile broadband, mission-critical communications, and the massive IoT. A defining capability of 5G is that it is designed for forward compatibility—the ability to flexibly support future services that are unknown today. Enhanced mobile broadbandIn addition to making our smartphones better, 5G mobile technology can usher in new immersive experiences such as VR and AR with faster, more uniform data rates, lower latency, and lower cost-per-bit. Mission-critical communications5G can enable new services that can transform industries with ultra-reliable, available, low-latency links like remote control of critical infrastructure, vehicles, and medical procedures. Massive IoT5G is meant to seamlessly connect a massive number of embedded sensors in virtually everything through the ability to scale down in data rates, power, and mobility—providing extremely lean and low-cost connectivity solutions. Consequently, carriers globally are committing to billions of dollars in investment in 5G networks. Case in point, in the U.S., both AT&T and Verizon are each earmarking over a staggering $20B. The objective of our analysis in this article is to evaluate carrier 5G leadership presently, not the future. In the future, carriers could move up and down the stack. We believe there are two critical factors in determining leadership. First, are public announcements identifying specific 5G related services and an evaluation of overall capabilities to deliver a balanced mix of consumer and enterprise offerings. Second, are public deployment announcements with infrastructure equipment providers that we highlighted in our Part 4 article. As in past articles, we will identify leaders, followers, and laggards. For our evaluation, we focused on three regions – North America/ Canada, Europe, and Asia and evaluated the top carriers in each region based on subscriber size for a manageable analysis.