The 5G push ushered in significant benefits. On April 18, China Telecom announced that it had recently realized the first voice call based on 5G independent network (SA) in the industry in 5G model network. This move indicates the maturity of 5G SA networking business capability, and the promotion of China Telecom is expected to accelerate the pace of 5G SA scale commercial.
5G Telephone Connected Successfully
China Telecom took the lead in realizing the first end-to-end 5G SA voice call in 5G model network Huawei. It is understood that China Telecom has realized the end-to-end 5G network of this call. Based on the stable version of R15 released by 3GPP (Mobile Communication Standards Organization) in December last year, the first high-definition voice telephone under SA network was made through 5G SA mobile phone.
It is understood that the SA voice scheme of China Telecom initially adopted the scheme of dropping back from 5G to 4G network (EPS Fallback). That is, when the terminals on 5G network have voice outgoing or inbound, the network switches 5G terminal to 4G network through handover process, and provides voice service through VoLTE technology of 4G network.
In the future, when the coverage performance of 5G network is improved comprehensively and important 5G services in market demand appear, 5G voice solutions (such as VoNR and other technical solutions) will be considered timely. In the next stage, China Telecom will further promote the 5G SA-based voice EPS Falllback pilot network.
Prior to this, many countries have announced the success of 5G phone calls. On March 29, Sichuan Telecom dialed 5G voice and video calls in Chengdu under the current network environment, and Sichuan entered the 5G era. Fujian Telecom joined hands with ZTE to realize the first outdoor call of commercial terminals based on 5G experimental network in Fuzhou through ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G flagship mobile phone; Guangdong Telecom joined hands with Huawei to use HUAWEI M under Shenzhen commercial network. Ate20X makes the first commercial 5G call.
China Mobile followed suit. On March 30, China Mobile dialed its first 5G call video in Shanghai; Tianjin Mobile successfully connected the 5G phone on Tianjin's first 5G test network outdoors with Huawei recently; China Mobile successfully dialed the first 5G phone on Beijing's 5G test network on April 12; Liaoning Mobile dialed the first 5G network phone in Northeast China on the morning of April 15.
China Unicom did not succeed. In January this year, Guangdong Unicom and ZTE made the first outdoor call of 5G mobile phone based on the latest protocol version of 3GPP in Shenzhen.
Although many countries have announced successful calls to 5G phones, the previous 5G calls were all realized under the condition of non-independent networking (NSA). According to the relevant technical personnel of China Telecom, under the condition of independent networking, 5G voice telephone is technically more complex than that under the condition of independent networking.
With the call of 5G phones, 5G mobile phones are no longer "exhibits" in the laboratory. China Unicom announced on April 17 that the first batch of 5G mobile phones with 12 brands are in place, totaling 15.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the need for a mobile phone to support 5G network, China Telecom recently announced that after the 5G network is opened for commercial use, users will be able to directly use 5G network without changing cards or cell phone numbers.
SA networking is the real 5G business
There are two standards in 5G standard: non-independent networking (NSA) and independent networking (SA). The so-called non-independent networking refers to the deployment of 5G networks using existing 4G infrastructure. Non-independent networking standards are mainly 5G technology dependent on the 4G core network, there is no independent 5G core network. The main application is eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband). As early as December 2017, the first version of 5G Non-Independent Networking (NSA) standard was officially frozen. The 3GPP organization has issued 5G non-independent networking standards.
Independent networking refers to the establishment of an existing network, including a new base station, backhaul links and core network. 5G independent networking can reduce the dependence on 4G network and satisfy eMBB and URLLC (low latency and high reliability) scenarios. Moreover, 5G independent networking can provide customized services according to application scenarios, which can meet the needs of users in various industries, and also bring a new end-to-end architecture.
Recently, there has been a heated discussion about whether domestic 5G network construction will adopt independent networking mode (SA) or non-independent networking mode (NSA).
Generally speaking, both non-independent networking (NSA) and independent networking (SA) have certain advantages and disadvantages. From the perspective of development trend, SA plans to build an independent 5G network, cloud deployment, cloud network integration, support network slicing, edge computing and other new features. Its architecture core and industry promotion are the mainstream development direction of 5G in the world.
Many foreign operators have chosen the architecture of non-independent networking (NSA). The networking plans of the three major domestic operators are different. From the recent developments of operators, we can see some clues about which networking mode will be adopted to build 5G.
At the end of March, China Telecom joined hands with Huawei and took the lead in Shenzhen 5G pilot project to complete the end-to-end verification and opening of multi-site NSA/SA (non-independent networking/independent networking) common-mode networking, and realized the first business application test based on common-mode networking in the industry.
Relatively speaking, China Telecom prefers SA to SA. China Telecom previously issued the "China Telecom 5G Technology White Paper" in 2018, which comprehensively elaborated the 5G technology Viewpoint and overall strategy, and made it clear that 5G network will give priority to SA scheme networking, and realize the coordination of 4G and 5G network through core network interoperability.
In November 2018, Shen Shaoyai, deputy general manager of China Telecom Technology Department, reiterated that China Telecom would adopt SA scheme.
Realize the real 5G.
The night before 5G, China Unicom expanded its 4G capacity by a large margin, releasing non-independent networking signals. On February 13 this year, China Unicom announced a bidding result, collecting 416,000 L900 and L1800 site orders. China Unicom's budget for this tender is close to 34.9 billion yuan, and the large-scale purchase of 4G base stations is obviously also in preparation for the construction of 5G.
From the previous 5G related information released by Unicom, many times emphasized "fast", that is, fast establishment of 5G network. From the test of 5G experimental network around the country, most of them focused on NSA (non-independent networking).
According to Fu Liang, a senior Telecom analyst, China Unicom 5G is likely to adopt independent networking. In this way, the 4G network is very important, and most newly invested 4G network devices are backward compatible with 5G, and most of Unicom's "huge network investment" will still play a role at 5G.
China Mobile's current attitude is the most ambiguous, SA and NSA are being tested. Industry analysis shows that China Mobile will focus on NSA in the early stage to solve the problems of rapid deployment of 5G and imperfect initial coverage, but at the same time, it will start to build an independent SA networking scheme.
From the path choice of the three major operators, China Mobile and China Unicom tend to NSA first, then SA network later, while China Telecom tends to SA network directly. The first voice call based on 5G independent networking (SA) in the industry has made great breakthroughs in the SA networking test of China Telecom. For ordinary users, it is obvious that the SA networking of China Telecom is more likely to be realized if they really want to realize the 5G life described by the industry.
5G network construction is in full swing
2019 is considered the first year of 5G in China. At present, the 5G networking strategy of the three major operators has been basically determined. The 5G investment expenditure of operators in 2019 will reach 10 billion levels. At present, the progress of operators can meet the target of pre-commercial in 2019 and official commercial 5G in 2020.
According to the plan, China Mobile will add 30,000 to 50,000 5G base stations in 2019, and actively promote the construction of 5G experimental network. China Telecom currently carries out 5G scale testing in 17 cities. After the opening of the first 5G base station in 2017, the first 5G CCTV Spring Festival Gala live broadcast, 5G+intelligent police, 5G+UAV and 5G+automatic driving and other business applications have been completed.
According to industry experts, 4G and 5G will coexist for a long time in the future. The 5G construction cycle will start in 2019, and the real big investment of operators will be in 2020-2021. According to the research report issued by the Yangtze River Securities Research Institute, the number of 4.3 million base stations is expected to be reached by the end of 2018 by the three major operators in China, while 5.8 million base stations will eventually be reached during the construction of 5G network (2019-2025).
The soldiers and horses did not move, but the grain and grass went ahead. On January 31, China Mobile announced the single source procurement results of wireless main equipment leasing for the demonstration project of 5G scale networking construction and application in 2019. Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia and Datang won the bid.
On April 9, China Telecom issued another announcement on the collection and acquisition of optical cable products. Before that, China Telecom has made two batches of purchases. It is generally believed that the continuous purchase of optical cable products by operators is the prelude to the large-scale construction of 5G.
The 5G commercial test license is expected to become an accelerator. On the issue of 5G licences, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said at the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2019 that China was expected to issue 5G licences this year. However, he said that according to the maturity of the terminal, 5G licenses should be issued in time.
From the previous Miaoxu revealed that in the second half of the year, we will use commercial products such as 5G mobile phones, 5G iPad and so on. It is possible for China to issue 5G licenses at some node in the second half of the year.
However, some organizations have more optimistic forecasts. In a recent research paper, CITIC said that China's 5G commercial test license is waiting to be issued and the trial commercial will be opened soon. The 5G commercial trial of the three major operators will be carried out step by step in the city. It is expected that the city will announce the 5G commercial trial around July, but the 5G commercial propaganda and friendly user recruitment may start on May 17, and the 5G commercial trial license may be issued (there is a possibility in advance).
The issuance of 5G licenses will be the wind vane of the 5G construction cycle. If the competition among operators is still a secret war, then the white-edged battle of real knives and real guns will really begin.
