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Olivier Ferveur: The Buzz Over 5G Shows That New Fiber Networks Also Need a Global Standard

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The author of this Expert Opinion is Dr. Olivier Ferveur, senior network architect at Post Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG, EUROPEAN UNION – On October 16, Post Luxembourg launched its commercial 5G wireless network, when the first cell sites were activated in the city of Luxembourg and other pilot zones using the 700 MegaHertz and 3.6 GigaHertz spectrum auctioned by city-state earlier this year.

As a senior architect of network access at Post Luxembourg, a state-backed telecommunications company in this small and rich country in the heart of the European Union, I’m pleased to offer my vision of the role that fiber technologies play on their own, and also in advancing 5G mobile development.

Post Luxembourg’s lunch event has been considered as major news item by the local media. For the first time in this post-COVID world, a subject besides the pandemic has in Luxembourg created discussion, enthusiasm, and perhaps a little bit of fear.

Post Luxembourg’s 5G coverage will be steadily extended during 2021 before the footprint is gradually expanded to cover the whole country, providing a “network of the future” that includes advanced applications like cloud gaming.

In fact, for the first time my grandmother asked me questions about my job in the field of broadband. But what and why is all of this happening?

Why is there so much dynamism surrounding 5G wireless technology? Indeed, the technology I am in charge of, XGS-PON, does not appear much in the media but only in a  few specialist press articles. (The term “XGS-PON” refers to 10 Gigabit per second (Gbps) symmetrical fiber using passive optical networks.)

Is this a sign of the end of the fixed broadband network that some people might begin to imagine? Not at all, in my opinion.

5G is not really a technology, but a global concept

To understand this difference in status we must identify that 5G is not really a technology. It is a global concept using multiple technologies that offers many uses for consumers and for enterprises. So what does this mean for fixed networks?

This way of presenting the bundle of technology and use cases is very powerful: It identifies the trends for the public, brings politics inside the discussion and gives broadband operators a perspectives of technology evolution. And for providers of equipment and solutions, this framework leads to research and development that both identifies future problems and gives a global new perspective to all industries.

Yet over the past decade, the so-called fixed network has been increasing bandwidth everywhere. This came through installing fiber technology or by improving existing technology like Vplus, a form of VDSL (which stands for “very high speed Digital Subscriber Line) or G.fast, another DSL technology with performance technology between 100 Megabit per second and 1 Gbps. All these technologies have bringing fiber closer to the consumers in common.

In parallel, network technologies that facilitate installation and maintenance have emerged. These include network function virtualization and software defined networks. But there has been no flashy and global “standard” like 5G that seems relevant and understandable for the public and for business enterprises. Why this difference between the fixed and mobile worlds?

The convention view about geography-specific fixed fiber networks

In fact, the fixed environment has a major difference with the mobile world: Fixed networks have a heavy dependency with massive investment in infrastructure.

Every fiber, copper or coaxial cable which is put in the ground is expected to last at least for 20 years. Because of this long-term investment, each country has a different status and doesn’t necessarily follow the same trend.

In Europe, for example, France has more deeply invested in fiber networks has Germany. Why? It’s because Germany has in the past installed lots of coax cables inside cities. Therefore, fiber investment has not been seen as relevant and necessary there.

In addition, the topographies and the population repartition highly impact the choice of one technology from another.

In fact, we now need a global standard for fiber network deployment

This means that, according to the conventional view, taking a global perspective is nearly impossible in the arena of fixed, fiber-based deployment.

But here’s where I disagree. On the contrary, I believe it is possible to have a global view in favor of fixed, fiber networks. It starts by recognizing how mandatory internet use has become. In one year, the internet use has changed as never in the past, and largely because of the pandemic.

We can speak about the number of devices inside houses, the increase of bandwidth for applications like the increase of 4k or 8k for videos. But in reality, the revolution is not yet here at this point. The true revolution comes for the high interactivity request from consumers.

Today, games, video conference services, enterprise VPN and other applications require a high availability, a disponibility of bandwidth every time, and good latency also. And these are just the requirements from actual and existing applications!

The development of new applications are basically blocked by the limitations in network capability. We need to unlock the network to offer more services.

After 30 years of the creation of the internet, this network is still a “best efforts” network. In other words, we are not able to manage complex apps with high requirements yet.

If we want to technically solve this issue, we need more interactions between open systems interconnections layers and that it is only possible with an overview of all fiber-based systems.

The creation of the F5G standard for fixed or fiber 5G

These observations are some of the reasons that my company, along with other actors inside the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, are participating in the creation of the F5G group, for “fixed” 5G.

This group has the ambition to explore new technologies. F5G want to define use cases based on one principle: Fiber everywhere and in everything. The group not only focuses on residential markets, but also looks at enterprises and vertical industries.

After a definition of the relevant use cases, the F5G group wants to highlight relevant technologies and analyze the gap between them. Collaboration between all standards organizations will become a key point to create a dynamic and reliable environment for the sector and the public.

This initiative has just begin. The whitepaper is already accessible. Additional definitions will come in the current months. Don’t be shy, but join us. This initiative will be successful if a large panel of actors participate to the basement of the next generation of fixed network.

Dr. Olivier Ferveur is senior network architect in the network transport department at Post Luxembourg. He joined the company in 2009 and helped develop the core IP/MPLS network. In 2014, he led the transformation of the core network to the next generation technology, including selection, design and deployment. He also represents Post Luxembourg inside ETSI’s F5G working group. This piece is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

Broadband Breakfast accepts commentary from informed observers of the broadband scene. Please send pieces to commentary@breakfast.media. The views expressed in Expert Opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Broadband Breakfast and Breakfast Media LLC.

Broadband Breakfast is a decade-old news organization based in Washington that is building a community of interest around broadband policy and internet technology, with a particular focus on better broadband infrastructure, the politics of privacy and the regulation of social media. Learn more about Broadband Breakfast.

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Rural Mobile Providers Push FCC to Alter 5G Fund Model

If carrier receiving legacy federal funds lose at auction, they could leave areas ‘stranded,’ providers say.

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Screenshot of Carri Bennet, RWA's general counsel

WASHINGTON, September 14, 2023 – Rural mobile providers are urging the Federal Communications Commission to consider an alternative to the reverse auction funding model the agency proposed for a future 5G fund.

The fund has been in limbo since 2020 due to mapping issues. It makes $9 billion available for 5G mobile broadband infrastructure in areas unlikely to be served without subsidies.

With access to newer, granular data on mobile broadband coverage in the U.S., the FCC released on August 31 a notice proposing updates to the program’s methodologies for defining areas eligible for funding and seeking comment on potential new provisions like extending support to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The proposal is slated to be discussed at the agency’s open meeting on September 21. 

Ahead of that discussion, the Rural Wireless Association has met with FCC officials five times in the last month to reiterate the same concerns over the program’s reverse auction model. Under this procedure, providers would compete to develop the cheapest cost structure for serving an area with the minimum required speeds – at least 35 Mbps upload and 3 Mbps download in the case of the 5G Fund.

Rural providers are concerned because some areas served by carriers receiving support from legacy funding programs like the Mobility Fund will be eligible for auction. If those carriers lose at auction, the RWA says, the reduction in federal funds might make them unable to continue operating their infrastructure and leave other areas covered by their networks without service.

“There is no ‘safety valve’ put in place that would protect these networks built with federal dollars and maintained by legacy support mobile carriers,” the association wrote in an ex parte filing on Wednesday.

The RWA has proposed the commission seek comment on allowing these providers to opt out of the reverse auction if they are an area’s sole mobile carrier. In such a scenario, the group also wants the FCC to consider subsidizing 5G upgrades based on predicted costs.

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CTIA Report Says 5G Available in 54% of U.S., 35% of Korea and 27% of China

The wireless association says 5G will add $1.5 trillion in GDP and 4.5 million in new jobs over 10 years.

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Illustration from CTIA–The Wireless Association

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2023 – A report by wireless trade association CTIA showed that the United States is making strides towards 5G development, and that the wireless standard is expected to add $1.5 trillion in GDP and 4.5 million of new jobs over the next decade.

Breaking the benefit down by geography, the study showed that 5G has contributed $139 billion to GDP growth in New York City, $65 billion to the Seattle area, $43 billion to Dallas, and $20 billion to San Diego.

The United States has emerged as a frontrunner among its global counterparts in terms of 5G availability, according to CTIA, with 54% coverage. This percentage appears to position it ahead of South Korea by nearly 20 percentage points, while surpassing China’s rate of 27% and more than three times the United Kingdom’s rate of 17%.

The report draws upon a 2021 study by BCG, 5G Promises Massive Job and GDP Growth in the U.S., February 2021, and supplements additional numbers sourced to prior CTIA reports. The trade group attributed the $275 billion of investment by service providers on infrastructure buildouts and enhancement. About $35 billion was spent in  2021.

5G’s faster deployment rate, increased consumer adoption, and superior performance compared to its 4G predecessor make it a key player in bridging the digital divide and mitigating climate change and strengthening national security, CTIA said.

Despite the progress made, the report reiterated the need to obtain more licensed mid-band spectrum to enable network expansion.

“This required a coordinated effort, starting with Congress re-establishing the Federal Communications Commission’s auction authority and auction pipeline,” urged the report.

The commission’s authority to license spectrum has expired in March and has not been renewed.

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Joel Thayer and Greg Guice: FCC Needs to Unchain T-Mobile to Promote 5G

5G is also helping carriers reach those on the wrong side of the digital divide.

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The author of this Expert Opinion is Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, and Greg Guice, director of Public Knowledge

We have all heard the pitch for 5G—a faster, better, and more interconnected mobile ecosystem. But it’s so much more than that. It allows children to transform the world into their classroom with augmented reality. It enables surgeons to operate on patients from hundreds of miles away. Because 5G networks can carry an almost immeasurable amount of data over their networks, smart cities, precision agriculture, and other AI-enabled applications are now becoming a reality.

We were only able to achieve such strides in 5G because our government made releasing spectrum—the invisible real estate that makes your mobile device work—a national priority. For example, Congress, in a bipartisan effort, passed the MOBILE NOW Act in 2018, which, among other things, created a spectrum pipeline for commercial 5G use. At the speed of 5G, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) responded with its 5G FAST Plan and opened up more than six gigahertz of spectrum for licensed 5G services, including more than 600 megahertz of mid-band spectrum to auction to augment our 5G capacities.

Their work paid off.

5G speeds are increasing. According to the IEEE—the preeminent standards group for wireless technology, “[w]ireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T have recorded speeds of one gigabyte per second.” To put that in perspective, that’s, as IEEE continues, “even faster than a fiber-optic cable connection.” Due to the comparable speeds to fiber, it’s no wonder why 92% of users access broadband services through their mobile device.

The 5G revolution has also been a boon to our economy. It has enabled 4.5 million jobs and will contribute a total of $1.5 trillion to the United States’ gross domestic product by 2025. The added competition from wireless providers have also put more money in consumers’ pockets as monthly internet bills have decreased by 14% to 42% on average over the past 5 years.

5G is also helping carriers reach those on the wrong side of the digital divide. Because of 5G’s wireless nature, it is more adept than fiber at reaching those in hard-to-connect regions of the country, such as the hollers of the Appalachians or the vast plains of the American West. This allows it to fill in the gaps where fiber options are untenable.

Even in 2022, we were still going strong. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel carried out the 5G FAST Plan by auctioning off more mid-band spectrum in the 2.5 gigahertz and 3.45 gigahertz bands.

But we have a problem. We’ve have no spectrum left in the pipeline. Even if we did, the FCC’s spectrum auction authority has lapsed for the first time ever.

The good news is that Congress is making progress on restoring the FCC’s auction authority.

The bad news is the legislative process  is going to take some time to complete.

But there are things the FCC can do to promote 5G today.

Specifically, it can issue T-Mobile’s 7,156 spectrum licenses it purchased last year in the FCC’s 2.5 GHz auction. These licenses allow T-Mobile to access invaluable mid-band spectrum that can fuel its 5G networks and expand their reach. Better yet, T-Mobile said they can start lighting up areas as soon as the FCC issues its license. Better service from T-Mobile means: more competition in the 5G space, more folks connected, and ultimately even lower prices for consumers across the board.

So what’s the hold up?

The FCC argues that it cannot act without its auction authority. That’s a strange conclusion because the 2.5 gigahertz auction occurred before its authority expired—and T-Mobile has already paid for the licenses. And the FCC issued spectrum licenses for six decades without auction authority. Frankly, the FCC doesn’t need auction authority to issue licenses it already lawfully granted. Indeed, a bipartisan group of former FCC general counsels all agree that the lack of auction authority is not a legal barrier for the agency.

The FCC should reconsider its prior conclusion and think about other authorities it can use to get this spectrum to market. If need be, it can grant T-Mobile temporary access while seeking comment on its authority, but doing nothing is not an option. We need our leaders at the FCC to make the right calls while Congress finds more spectrum.

The fate of 5G and beyond depends on it.

Joel Thayer is president of the Digital Progress Institute and an attorney based in Washington, D.C. The Digital Progress Institute is a nonprofit seeking to bridge the policy divide between telecom and tech through bipartisan consensus. Greg Guice is director of Public Knowledge. This piece is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

Broadband Breakfast accepts commentary from informed observers of the broadband scene. Please send pieces to commentary@breakfast.media. The views expressed in Expert Opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Broadband Breakfast and Breakfast Media LLC.

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