This week, in Net Futures 2016, Telefónica has presented its views on 5G and FIWARE on two sessions held on April 20th.
Here is our vision on 5G and the roadmap to key standards.
A new mobile generation has appeared every 10 years. 5G is referred to as beyond 2020 mobile communications technologies. From a user point of view 5G may be something else than increased peak bit rate; for example higher number of simultaneously connected devices, higher system spectral efficiency, lower battery consumption, higher versatility and scalability, higher reliability of communications, converged fiber-wireless network.
All in all, 5G will enable new commercial opportunities, serving vertical markets and supporting new use cases and applications, as well as to provide significant economic efficiencies in terms of deployment and operation costs. Standardization and regulatory decisions undertaken regarding 5G facilitate them. Also, it is important that we avoid fragmentation and having access to the required spectrum.
At this regard, we welcome the European Commission Communication on ICT Standardisation Priorities as part of its set of initiatives regarding its first industry-related package 5G is one of the priorities domains. We agree that “Standards are important tools for making different technologies work together and for stimulating the growth of new eco-systems across a digital single market. They can boost innovation and reinforce the competitiveness of European industry.”
Currently, it seems that there is a race between different geographical areas (including Europe), vendors and operators to reach 5G first, up to the point of planning to support commercial 5G services before the standard has been approved. We consider that this kind of competition may be healthy to spur innovation; however, only to the point that we get it right.
Not getting 5G right means not fulfilling 5G expectations, or not being able to provide the essential technical capabilities for future growth. More innovative proposals on the radio interface are needed to fulfill 5G expectations and should be taken into account in the standardization process.
Carlos Ralli Ucendo, IoT Architect & IPv6 Expert, presented FIWARE on the “Boosting entrepreneurships through R&I” session.
Telefónica has presented the creation of the FIWARE Foundation, announced in the past Mobile World Congress and launched by Atos, Engineering, Orange and Telefónica, the members of the FIWARE Core Industry group.
On its recently unveiled set of initiatives to digitise the industry, the European Commission is supporting Open platforms in general and FIWARE in particular, to accelerate innovation by companies and communities of developers and build new services, advancing the Internet of Things in Europe.
FIWARE is a rich and versatile suite of standardised software components that can be used as the basis for creating advanced Internet services and apps faster and at lower cost. It is one of the results of the EU’s Public-Private Partnership on the Future Internet. FIWARE was ‘born in Europe’ and is now being globally adopted. It is today a vibrant community of more than 5,000 people from industry, SMEs and startups, from developers and user community in business and the public sector.
Be part of the conversation #netfutures16 and @TefPublicPolicy!
