The United States has recently publicly acknowledged that there have been major mistakes in its 5G strategy, changing from a supporter of millimeter waves to a follower of the mid-wave band, expanding the coverage of the US 5G network . The helpless move of the United States to “remedy the situation” also proves from the side that China’s strategy of choosing IF spectrum to deploy 5G from the beginning is correct.
Remedy: U.S. 5G strategy failed
At the beginning of 5G, the United States has been a solid supporter of millimeter waves, but this supporter has been completely shaken.
According to Reuters, the Trump administration announced a plan on Monday to auction off 100MHz mid-band spectrum originally used for military purposes for commercial use. These spectrums will be put into commercial use in mid-2022, thereby expanding the US 5G network Coverage. This move not only proves the failure of the US 5G strategic choice, but also shows that the millimeter wave road is not feasible at the current stage.
Millimeter wave has the characteristics of large bandwidth and narrow beam. In the past, it was only used in militarized fields such as satellite communications and radar positioning. Although its advantages are very prominent, high speed and high capacity, millimeter wave can provide a huge carrier bandwidth of up to 400 to 800MHz, which is dozens of times higher than 4G’s 20MHz, and can increase the transmission rate of 5G networks to 10Gbps. .
However, the disadvantages of millimeter wave are particularly obvious. The transmission distance is short and it is easily affected by the obstacles of buildings, people, plants, and even raindrops . These higher frequency ranges are not suitable for mobile broadband services. Due to insufficient coverage and lack of mobility support (especially in non-line-of-sight environments), this has also led to the application of millimeter waves on mobile broadband has not been feasible.
Data shows that out of a total of 63 operators that have opened 5G networks in the world, only 4 are using millimeter waves, of which 3 are US operators and 1 is Uruguay.
And after more than a year of fact verification, the actual use of millimeter wave 5G in the United States is not ideal. In the millimeter wave 5G network piloted by Verizon, even leaves cannot penetrate, and the “one tree criterion” has also become a joke in the communications industry.
After discovering that millimeter waves are too difficult to “righten up”, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) publicly admitted that millimeter waves are expensive in 5G networks, poor radio propagation characteristics, and poor coverage performance. Officials also took the initiative to “recognize” that they will no longer insist on using millimeter waves to build 5G, but also use the Sub-6 band.
The US White House consultant and US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios stated that the FCC will auction “100MHz mid-band spectrum for military use” to companies such as Verizon Communications and AT&T from December 2021, and the US wireless industry will be able to use these in the summer of 2022. Spectrum.
Michael Kratsios emphasized that this move “enables us to maximize the use of 5G spectrum without compromising national security.”
In my opinion, the US release of military mid-band spectrum is also a helpless move to “remedy the situation.” If this “prison” is not made up, it may lead to the backwardness of 5G in the United States, and the loss outweighs the gain.
Best choice: Deploy 5G in IF spectrum
The “lost” of the US 5G strategy also proves from the side that China’s strategy of choosing IF spectrum to deploy 5G from the very beginning is correct.
In the author’s opinion, the deployment of 5G in the intermediate frequency spectrum can not only give full play to the advantages of domestic technology and industrial chain, but also strongly promote the deployment and application of 5G in China.
According to official data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of June this year, my country has built more than 400,000 5G base stations, and the number of users actually connected to the 5G network has reached 66 million. According to data provided by the French Echo, there are 1 million 5G users in the United States, which is almost one percent of the number of 5G users in China.
At the same time, with the help of the three major operators, 5G applications have continued to “ride the wind and waves” to achieve “multiple blooms” in vertical industries such as industry, medical care, and transportation, and create a series of industry benchmarks.
This further proves that China’s 5G technology path selection is correct. Moreover, as the world’s first country to clarify the application of IF spectrum, China’s 5G successful experience is not just “flowering in the wall”, but “scented” to be worthy of foreign reference.
Not long ago, GSMA published an article praising China for its best demonstration of 5G spectrum resources. “Four operators in China have obtained the corresponding 5G spectrum through administrative allocation. These spectrums are the result of investigation and negotiation by the Chinese government and regulatory agencies. It turns out that these frequency bands are in line with the needs of the three major operators. , Are of great benefit to their respective 5G deployments.”
With the development of mobile communication technology, spectrum resources are increasingly scarce. GSMA recommends that regulators should avoid setting aside spectrum for vertical markets in key frequency bands. In addition to 5G slicing technology, mobile operators can also set up private networks for enterprise users on-demand on the basis of coordinating the spectrum resources of the entire network to meet the application needs of vertical industries.
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