Ericsson, in partnership with Qualcomm and Thales, introduced in the present day that it’s collectively planning trials of a satellite-based 5G community, utilizing low-earth orbit satellites to offer globally out there connectivity.
The thought is to offer a backup service to terrestrial 5G, providing protection in distant areas the place 5G is probably not deployed for a while. The businesses stated in a joint assertion that they count on nationwide governments to be among the many major customers of such a service, for nationwide safety and public security networks.
Satellite tv for pc companies are a key a part of 5G having the ability to stay as much as expectations, in keeping with John Smee, Qualcomm senior vp of engineering.
“For 5G to meet on the promise of ubiquitous connectivity, it’s crucial that it could actually additionally ship community protection in areas the place terrestrial mobile networks don’t exist, whether or not that be over oceans or in distant areas,” Smee stated in an announcement.
The plan isn’t to supply direct-to-endpoint 5G service through satellite tv for pc, however somewhat to offer a backhaul methodology that doesn’t contain attempting to run fiber into impractical or distant areas.
Invoice Menezes, director analyst at Gartner Analysis, stated that the Ericsson-Qualcomm-Thales venture is unlikely to be distinctive, as different wi-fi business stakeholders observe swimsuit.
“There’s a chance right here to create quite a lot of ways in which 5G {hardware} and tech can play in what could possibly be a reasonably quickly rising a part of the satellite tv for pc enterprise,” he stated.
The thought of satellite-backed 5G base stations is engaging, however largely in particular use instances, famous Menezes, citing oil rigs, airliners and significantly rural areas nearly as good candidates for the service. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of 5G networks are more likely to stay absolutely terrestrial for the foreseeable future.
“It’s newsworthy that they’re doing real-world testing, which hopefully means it’s the subsequent step earlier than deployment,” he stated. “But it surely’s nonetheless going to be a distinct segment connectivity market – the true query is what’s the demand going to be?”
Menezes estimated that absolutely operational satellite tv for pc 5G networks of this type are nonetheless doubtless three to 5 years away, however one of these satellite-based backhaul is one thing that the 3GPP telecommunications requirements physique and different cellular networking stakeholders have been attempting to get working for years.
“As we get extra of those [low-earth orbit] broadband satellites, the concept that you could assist even-better-than-4G connectivity in areas the place there was no connectivity earlier than could possibly be fairly compelling,” he stated.
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