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The age of 5G is upon us, and with it comes a host of complex applications that promises unbridled communication and seamless connectivity across the globe. As such, mobile operators and the telecommunications industry are being faced with the daunting task of readying themselves for the advent of the first 5G commercial networks. Out of all the novelty applications within the 5G architecture, network slicing will undoubtedly form the framework upon which operators will build their specific consumer use cases such as autonomous driving, smart homes and the Internet of Things (IoT), just to name a few.

In 2003, the world was overcome with a crippling fear of the SARS virus that claimed the lives of more than 700 people worldwide. Almost a decade later, the global community was faced with yet another paralysing health crisis known as MERs or camel flu. Although this disease mostly affected a large portion of the Arabian Peninsula and eventually spread to parts of Southeast Asia and North America, almost 1000 people were reported to have perished from it; around 30% higher than the death toll for SARS. This time, we are being forced to grapple with a deadlier and more aggressive form of a similar respiratory disease known as novel coronavirus or COVID-19; a virus that was first identified in Wuhan, China and one that has already racked up a death toll numbering in the thousands and counting.

5G is unlike previous generations of mobile technology in many ways. It achieves higher speeds and lower latency, it enables a broader range of use cases and expands cellular services to more vertical industries and enterprise customers. It is also more hyped. While there are some unrealistic public expectations around use cases like remote surgery or fully autonomous cars, the performance, flexibility and efficiency of 5G networks create real opportunities for mobile service providers to deliver unique services and attract new customers.

By Arnaud Comerzan, Senior Manager Regulatory and Frederic Doucet, Senior Manager, Sofrecom

For many years, mobile operators have built their marketing primarily around network-related statements: coverage, performance and quality of service. Owning and being the exclusive users of their infrastructures was thus enough to protect them to a large extent from competition, as such assets were then considered to be highly strategic.

To carry out the new development concept of “innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing”, and accelerate the construction of a nationwide 5G network with state-of-the-art technologies, high-quality, efficient operation, and global leadership, China Telecom and China Unicom have innovatively proposed to cooperate to build a 5G access network nationwide, with wide coverage, excellent technology, low investment, good perception, and supreme user experience.

5G technology, with its speed 10 times faster than 4G LTE, can help businesses realize many long-held ambitions like real-time augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), distributed machine learning within the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, smart cities, edge computing, etc.

As networks continue to evolve and become more complex with the emergence of new technologies, service providers are under immense pressure to revamp and restrategize existing business models in order to participate competitively in the global market. With this in mind, Ciena’s primary vision is to help operators not only adapt to the increasing demands of an ever-changing ecosystem, but to flourish and continue to ride the wave of digital transformation.

The coronavirus is currently spreading at an incredibly rapid rate all over China, which has led to a surge in the number of new cases in many other countries. This is not the first fatal virus which has spread like wildfire all over the world.

5G, the next generation of mobile broadband technology allows for faster mobile broadband speeds (up to 20Gbps), faster response timings (possibly as low as 1 millisecond) and multi-device support. With licenses to roll out 5G in Singapore on the market, three bids from Singapore’s four major telcos were submitted at the closing of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)’s Call For Proposal (CFP) on 17^th February 2020. 

“Our global expansion is really customer driven. Blue Wireless serves global enterprises and the fact that we can serve them wherever their business takes them is a key value for them.”