5G: Where we are and where we are going

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In recent months, we have seen society’s adoption of technology accelerate dramatically. Automation, artificial intelligence, virtual experiences, autonomous vehicles, and robotics have become much more widely accepted as humanity has realized what these technologies could mean for human progress. The global pandemic has also forced corporations to change their business models, redefine education, reframe remote healthcare, and fundamentally open the door to different ways of doing everything we did before COVID differently.

At the same time, the wonders of technology have caused divisions – both economic and geographic – that must be addressed as we seek to recover and rebuild. Today, the future of the economy and our communities depends on the ability of businesses and governments to invest in a long-term digital transformation strategy that includes everyone and everything, regardless of their how to save australia number in whatsapp location or prior relationship with modern technology. One of the key elements to making this transformation a reality is having a ubiquitous way to reach the entire digital ecosystem. We will rely on modern connectivity to connect clouds to the edges, people to devices across society – and right now the most important new technology to make that happen is next-generation wireless communications technology (5G).

Building 5G on top of existing 4G infrastructure – an important first step
Today, 5G is at best an extension of the 4G environment with legacy or traditional technology powering networks for moderately faster speeds. The big four U.S. carriers have each introduced technology that aims to bring 5G connectivity to consumers – essentially adding 5G equipment to an existing 4G LTE network.

While these early efforts to bolster 4G LTE networks are admirable and demonstrate the appetite for the 5G experience, they are still very early days in delivering the high broadband speeds, near-zero latency, and high device density promise of 5G. The journey to get there is the challenge, and we have some pretty significant hurdles to overcome from a U.S. perspective and will need the full investment of the U.S. innovation ecosystem.

The race to 5G dominance heats up around the world
One of the biggest impediments to 5G infrastructure is the limited market that exists, particularly in the United States, which lacks suppliers at scale for the modern 5G equipment used to build these new networks. If we don’t fix that problem, 5G adoption in the U.S. will lag behind other nations and the U.S. tech ecosystem will become an outsider to this critical technology. The government must find creative ways to attract American companies into the 5G ecosystem by sharing risk and creating incentives. With the capital, resources, and talent to build 5G infrastructure, Big Tech will be able to increase its 5G participation at an accelerated pace. We know that when the U.S. tech industry is fully present in a technical ecosystem, amazing innovation and real progress happens. We’ve seen this in Cloud, IT, software-defined systems, virtualization, security, and even wireless many years ago.

This shift in the role of the U.S. technical ecosystem is critical. The lack of a robust and secure supply chain, U.S. technology, and control of the intellectual property rights of the 5G ecosystem introduces significant strategic, security, economic, and political risk to the communications industry. The impact of these shortcomings goes beyond just mobile connectivity. The United States must drive innovation and standardization of the national 5G infrastructure to not only lag behind on the world stage, but also play a significant role in the market as it has done for nearly every other technological invention. In this way, we can increase market competitiveness, avoid vendor lock-in, and reduce costs at a time when governments around the world need to prioritize spending. More importantly, we can set the stage for the next wave of wireless technology that will look much more like cloud and IT ecosystems than traditional telecommunications systems.

Setting up a 5G network requires a new model
So far, major efforts to develop a national 5G network have been fragmented, but not for lack of trying. The Open Access Radio Network (O-RAN) standard is a great place to start – open is always better than closed when it comes to innovation and standardization. However, with O-RAN, you run the risk of open environments without optimization. If you can’t get disparate parts to work together, you don’t necessarily have an effective open environment.

We need to change the way we approach building 5G infrastructure, starting from the ground up. 5G is not simply an evolution of 4G; it requires massive transformation, a multitude of additional towers, and demands new distributed architectures using software-defined networks. Dell Technologies believes the model should mimic the way a cloud is built; it is done with a coalition, an ecosystem, and people who understand how to build modern systems beyond the specific needs of telco networks. And that is where Dell Technologies and others are starting to emerge as potential enablers to enable that collaboration and integration at scale.

Now is the time
Building sustainable 5G networks is a massive undertaking, requiring federal support and investment from American companies. Deploying 5G networks in the coming years requires immediate capital for new infrastructure, devices, and services. It also requires a focus not just on creating demand for 5G but on creating sources of supply for the underlying technology in the U.S. This is an investment in creating new players or attracting adjacent companies to the 5G ecosystem. Ultimately we must have a wireless ecosystem that includes not only the current well-respected international players, but also fully includes a number of U.S. technology companies at scale that will play primary roles in the future of wireless technology.

The events of the past six months have changed the way every technologist thinks about innovation. As more and more data is created at the edge, we have become a culture that relies on remote access. The continued expansion of digital health, education, remote work, vocational training, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement requires high-speed network accessibility, and investment in 5G technology infrastructure can make closing the digital divide possible. The U.S. is leading innovation in nearly every aspect of that future except the basic technology to connect it all. That must change as a matter of national interest. Now is the time to seize the opportunity to invest in the infrastructure for a digital economy and ensure our nation’s future global competitiveness.