5G:

New Services
New Customers
New Challenges

March 2017
 “5G is not simply about making Contents
smartphones faster.
“It’s about the machines and Introduction ............................................................................. 4
things that will deliver an entirely
new smart and connected future. Executive Summary .............................................................. 5
“Building our 5G future requires
Recommendations ................................................................ 6
a new approach to industry
collaboration and development.”
What is 5G? ............................................................................. 7

Asha Keddy, Vice President,

Communication and Devices Group, Intel
When Will 5G Become Available? .................................... 1 0

Why do we Need 5G? .......................................................... 12

What New Services Will 5G Enable? ............................... 1 6

Spectrum ................................................................................ 22

Does the Government Have Any Role to Play? ........... 24

Addressing Obstacles to Early/Rapid Deployment ... 26

2 3
5G: New Services, New
Customers, New Challenges
Introduction
Consumers have shifted their data consumption from
PCs to mobile devices, some homes have no active
fixed line at all; cloud services have freed businesses
from fixed locations, and in the UK most business calls
now originate on mobile networks - retailers, social
networks, advertisers, and search engines are adjusting
to all of that.
This change in consumer behaviour already poses a
challenge for mobile networks to meet demand. As the
increasing consumption of video on mobile devices
shows no sign of slowing down, and with the definition
of that video transitioning from standard definition to
high or ultrahigh, mobile operators need to ensure that
they can meet that demand and maintain quality of
service for their subscribers.
That will require a combination of new base station sites
(and other mobile infrastructure), additional and more
intensively shared spectrum (including aggregating
multiple spectrum bands simultaneously), integration of
new access technologies, and upgrading the underlying
technology.
That technology - 4G - has further upgrades
planned, but for several years the mobile sector has
been working on standardising 5G, not just as an
evolutionary upgrade offering faster speeds, but
additionally to offer seamless reliable connectivity
across different technologies with lower latency (delay
in data communication over a network), lower energy
consumption, and an ability to support the very high
terminal densities expected to be seen with the Internet
of Things (IOT).
That is a tall ask, but if achieved would enable mobile
4 5
networks to better address a range of verticals,
including autonomous (self-driving) vehicles, enterprise
IOT, and health/care applications – in addition to
meeting the spiralling consumer demand for video.
Understandably the UK wants to be a leader in this
exciting development – and so it should be. But there
are obstacles to overcome before we can get there.
The business case for early deployment of 5G is
uncertain – especially in the UK given:
• Consumers’ low willingness to pay for
technology upgrades;
• the political, media and regulatory focus on
headline downlink speed offered at each price
point, with little consideration of the “quality” of
connection, coverage or customer service;
• the historic price of spectrum, and
• the drawn-out and costly planning approval and
deployment process.
The purpose of this paper, which represents a
UK industry view, is neither to be an unrestrained
cheerleader for 5G, nor to dazzle the reader with
technology. There are plenty of 5G papers which
already do that.
What this paper aims to do is to highlight the potential
of 5G, in particular the services and applications which
cannot be efficiently serviced – if served at all – by
one or more of the current access technologies, and to
discuss some of the obstacles to early and widespread
deployment.
Executive Summary
With consumers and businesses increasingly using
mobile devices, and those devices generating ever more
data, mobile infrastructure operators are in a race to
stay ahead of demand.
4G effectively provided a capacity enhancement of
around 2.5x. 5G will build on that, but won’t represent a
sudden shift akin to replacing vinyl with compact disc.
5G will be achieved through both an evolution of 4G and
a revolution in new radio technology and networking
control techniques. Some of the technologies expected
to be central to 5G, such as much faster connectivity
resulting from aggregating multiple spectrum bands
and multi-antenna technologies, are already utilised by
4G networks, or soon will be.
But 5G offers so much more than just faster downloads.
Unlike other mobile technologies, 5G will be an end-
to-end system, holding out the promise of seamless
reliable connectivity across different technologies with
lower latency (delay in data communication), lower
energy consumption, and support for very high terminal
densities required by the Internet of Things.
These 5G-specific capabilities will ensure that cellular
networks can address key use cases, including:
• Autonomous vehicles, expected to be introduced
by 2021 (so a similar timetable as 5G), which present
an extreme use case requiring low latency as well as
high availability and reliability; and
• IOT – encompassing both massive deployments of
sensors, which are mostly latency-tolerant and with
low data requirements, and also “Critical IOT” - low
latency real-time control and monitoring.
As such, 5G has the potential to be truly transformative.
Deployment will still be limited by 2021 (with 4G
carrying most cellular data), but will increase
throughout the next decade.
But the high cost of providing ultra-low latency,
combined with the strong incentive on mobile operators
to extract maximum value from their 4G investments,
may delay the speed at which some of the 5G-specific
capabilities arrive, and some use cases may not be
addressed by 5G to the full extent theoretically possible.
If the UK could become a 5G leader, the creativity for
which we are famous combined with the start-up/scale-
up culture, would position the UK to become Europe’s
showcase for the applications and services enabled by
5G. That requires a concerted effort from government
and business. Forecast to be worth $1.2 trillion by 2026,
that’s worth having a major slice of.
For that to happen, we need to see a much more
co-ordinated approach to deploying – and sharing –
infrastructure than hitherto; a focus on connectivity in
major transport corridors; and Ofcom must be willing
to adopt new means of getting spectrum available to
industry, which may encompass both mobile operators
and enterprise users.
Trials will also be an essential precursor to becoming
a 5G leader, where we support the funding the
Government has made available to extend fibre
networks and stimulate the introduction of 5G mobile
services, plus the selection of Ordnance Survey to
develop a planning and mapping tool to support
national deployment of 5G. We also highlight the first
UK field trial, by Arqiva and Samsung, of pre-standards
5G Fixed Wireless Access technology.
 Recommendations

1. Ofcom should auction 700 MHz spectrum in advance of final UK clearance to enable those
who are awarded some of this spectrum the opportunity to plan their networks and deploy
infrastructure even before the last Freeview multiplex had been relocated.

2. Ofcom should both encourage competition amongst mobile operators and facilitate quality
coverage, including the use of greater sharing.

3. The Government, and public sector managers of key transport corridors, must work with
industry to ensure 5G connectivity far exceeds what is currently offered by 4G.

4. Ofcom should initiate a debate with industry to plan trials in pioneer bands and to determine
the optimal form of releasing spectrum to the market (e.g. award mechanisms, auction,
beauty contest and shared access, regional vs national licences), methods of mitigation
between 5G and incumbent uses.

5. A much more proactive and joined-up approach towards deploying urban infrastructure is
imperative. The UK cannot be a 5G leader unless it can ensure that 100,000s urban microcells
could be efficiently deployed, where and when they were needed, with fibre ready to go -
and ideally with the roads being dug up only once.

Credit: Ericsson

What is 5G?
The term “5G” is being used to broadly identify the next
development of technology underpinning public mobile
communications. Unlike the previous three generations
of public mobile network technology, 5G is targeting
delivery of more than just “higher speed mobile
broadband” for consumers – 5G brings an expectation
of greater interconnectivity between a wider range of
existing telecommunications networks and services.
If 5G were only about faster downloads, i.e. it was
purely evolutionary, then arguably that wouldn’t
justify the current level of interest from governments
and industry, nor the resources allocated to trials and
research.
But 5G will be revolutionary in that it will allow a
separation between the infrastructure itself and the
software that powers it – making possible faster and
cheaper provision of services, on demand. It will be
backwards compatible with today’s increasingly all IP
4G networks – there is no need to throw away existing
investments. Old definitions of “fixed” and “mobile” may
become increasingly obsolete, as may “terrestrial” and
“satellite”.
As Qualcomm have put it: “5G will be a new kind of
network, supporting a vast diversity of devices with
unprecedented scale, speed and complexity,” So we
should think live-streaming VR, autonomous cars that
can detect obstacles and respond to conditions in real
time, and connected cities where everything from the
houses to the street lamps talk to each other.
In preparation, Ofcom 1 has proposed “…a strategic shift
to encourage investment in the large-scale deployment
of new ultrafast broadband networks…” This would
involve replacing old and capacity-limited copper
with fibre, and placing that fibre ever closer to end
customers, with high capacity high frequency radio
tails providing a mobility component. As consumers
demand increasing amounts of mobile data, fibre will
penetrate networks ever more deeply –the “last hop”
is increasingly likely to be wireless. Cellular networks
will therefore rely increasingly on fixed networks
in response to rising consumer expectations of
connectivity (and that wireless last hop will increasingly
constrain the performance consumers are paying for,
particularly when they are fortunate enough to have
FTTP).

Credit: Samsung
1
Paragraph 1.2, Wholesale Market Access review.

6 7
 Satellite: An Integral Part Of The 5G Ecosystem

Satellite: An Integral Part Of The 5G Ecosystem

Flight tracking
Greener Skies
Operational Systems
Passenger connectivity

Fixed & mobile

asset tracking

Telemetry & E Health Connected House:

data backhaul Traffic Priority
Broadband Services
Smart Grids
Hybrid Multiplay / Local Storage
Security & Entertainment
Surveillance Smart Metering

Smart Mobility Fleet Managment

DELAYS
Remote control Connected Cars
of road signs Car to car communication

M2M
Utility Management SCADA applications Smart Parking Smart Staff Location
Wearables Tracking

Civil Security:
interoperable first
response across borders
Merchant Shipping
Crew Welfare
Passenger Connectivity

Credit: ESOA Credit: ESOA

So 5G will be achieved through both an evolution A ‘Gigabit Society’ implies millions of connections Another key pillar of the 5G vision is ensuring deploying MIMO 4 (which offers increased spectral
from today’s technology and a revolution in new radio between people, devices, and things. This system of availability, reliability and robustness. This sets one of and energy efficiency). 5G is expected to utilise
technology and networking control and techniques. It systems will require inter-connectivity and stability the major requirements of the 5G infrastructure: to be MIMO for both transmit and receive, supporting
will build on the all-IP fixed and mobile networks which at unprecedented levels that terrestrial networks more demand / user centric with the agility to marshal multiple operating frequency bands simultaneously,
current 4G technology consists of, as well as integrating alone probably won’t be able to deliver. By 2020- resources to deliver “always sufficient” data rate and which would produce several potential sources of
other technologies. 5G will therefore be an ecosystem 2025 there will be over 100 High Throughput Satellite minimal latency – subject to use-case – so as to give interference, including between simultaneous modes
providing lower latency and highly reliable, high (HTS) systems in orbit, using a range of spectrum the end-user the perception of an infinite capacity of transmission and cross-talk between different
throughput networks serving diverse usage scenarios, bands, delivering Terabits of connectivity across the environment with ubiquitous coverage. In order to radios at the same or adjacent frequency;
from IOT to high speed fixed and mobile broadband, in world, ready to play a role in the 5G ecosystems being achieve this, the 5G services and content will have to
a range of consumer and industrial settings. deployed. be operated over several heterogeneous networks • The risk of raising expectations which can’t then be
including mobile and fixed, Wi-Fi/WiGig and High satisfied;
5G will be more than just cellular, it will be wireless - a 5G isn’t just about higher speed connection. 5G is also Throughput Satellites (HTS).
combination of new technologies working hand-in-hand intended to address two specific use cases which are • Coverage, where without government intervention
with existing technologies. It will encompass satellite 2 emerging: firstly, applications which require much lower But bringing 5G to market isn’t without its challenges: (including providing access to public assets) and
which, though challenged to provide sufficiently low latency (i.e. quicker response times) than 4G could offer, lower prices for spectrum (perhaps in conjunction
latency for some anticipated use cases, will provide and secondly, IOT, where millions of sensors and other • The investment case for 5G is still developing, not with higher coverage obligations), it isn’t obvious
backhaul (as it currently does for cellular networks); devices are sending and receiving often small packets least for ultra low latency 3 , while there is plenty of why 5G would have greater coverage than 4G - and
broadcast (such as push Over-The-Air software of data, and often intermittently, to and from cloud life left in 4G; “coverage”, to consumers, increasingly encompasses
downloads); and will extend the reach of 5G terrestrial service providers, something current mobile networks “quality”, not just the presence of a single signal bar.
• How to quickly, and cost-effectively, deploy large
systems – enabling ubiquitous services. aren’t optimised for, particularly where long battery life
numbers of small cells in urban areas;
is essential for the connected device (for example, with
Satellite will therefore provide an invisible and resilient smart parking or river level sensors, where recharging is • The potential for interference, particularly when
overlay for terrestrial networks (without government impractical).
intervention it is far from clear whether terrestrial 5G
will be deployed in the many current 4G coverage “not
spots”, including on major roads). 3
Achieving < 1 millisecond latency would be very expensive, requiring investment in network intelligence to avoid router delays, and perhaps the
adoption of a centralized, cloud-based architecture (“C-RAN”).
4
Multiple Input, Multiple Output multi- antenna technology. The University of Bristol operates a Massive MIMO Test Bed. Facebook has also
2
It is expected that 3GPP will also undertake work to define RANs (Radio Access Networks) for non-terrestrial networks (viz satellites and HAPs) developed a technology dubbed ARIES (Antenna Radio Integration for Efficiency in Spectrum) using an array of 96 discrete antennas to
for inclusion in the future 5G standards. transmit a signal from a city over tens of kilometres into the surrounding countryside.

8 9
When Will 5G Become Available?
The first specifications for 5G are expected to be
agreed by 2018, with the final set including the new
technologies expected in 2020. There may not be a
clear technology-based dividing line between 4G and
5G, where commercial deployment of Massive MIMO
from 2017 may be marketed as 4.5G or 4.9G.
It is likely that there will be some early launches of
pre-final specification equipment in bands below 6
GHz 5 and in higher frequency bands 6 . Around the
world, such as with Verizon in the US 7 , there are
already pre-commercial pre-standards 5G trials taking
place, and Arqiva and Samsung recently announced
the first field trial of pre-standards 5G Fixed Wireless
Access (FWA) technology in the UK.
Both the 2018 Winter Olympics and 2020 Summer
Olympics are expected to be used to highlight 5G,
but with limited deployments based on pre-final
specification equipment, and with few devices available.
In the UK, 3.4-3.6 GHz spectrum, which offers industry a
compromise between spectrum ideal for coverage and
spectrum well-suited to capacity, is anticipated to be
auctioned in mid-2017. The 700 MHz spectrum, ideally
suited to wide-area coverage, will be cleared of digital
terrestrial television on a region-by-region basis, and
will be clear UK-wide by mid-2020.
RECOMMENDATION
Ofcom should auction 700 MHz spectrum
in advance of final clearance to enable
those who are awarded some of this
spectrum the opportunity to plan their
networks and deploy infrastructure even
before the last Freeview multiplex in 700
MHz spectrum had been relocated.
Licence-exempt spectrum currently used to support
Wi-Fi will continue to play a complementary role in
meeting data demand from mobile devices, both
in respect of Wi-Fi but also in respect of some 5G
applications which are likely to be able to make use
of licence-exempt and shared spectrum in addition
to licensed. This will support consumers who want
affordable cost effective wireless access with increasing
data rates and high volume caps. Use of licence-
exempt Wi-Fi/WiGig spectrum is expected to grow, too.
Better mapping and propagation modelling would help
to dispassionately assess if co-existence could work in a
given band.
It is expected that there will be more human subscribers
to 3G or 4G than to 5G for at least 10 years after 5G’s
launch, and Cisco predicts 4G will represent 79% of
traffic carried by cellular networks in 2021.
5G, like 4G, will be able to deploy carrier aggregation,
where several spectrum bands are used simultaneously
to offer higher bandwidth. 5G is also expected to use
larger contiguous channels than 4G does. That would be
a product of the use of all currently available spectrum
below 6 GHz; the expected award of additional
spectrum below 6GHz (often referred to as “centimetre
wave” spectrum); and the use of very high frequency
spectrum that is to be identified above 24GHz (so called
“millimetre wave”).
Much higher frequency spectrum will allow much higher
access speeds to be offered, but only over much shorter
distances - perhaps only about 100-200m, although the
use of MIMO and Beamforming 8 could increase that
range.
The shorter wavelengths and propagation
characteristics of this higher frequency spectrum will
necessitate the deployment of hundreds of thousands
of small access points, each of which will require fibre
Credit: Avanti
for backhaul 9 , in addition to the “macro” cells used
today.
Providing connectivity inside many buildings from
outside base stations will be challenging (where
modern construction materials can impede signals from
outside), as will addressing the risk of “urban canyons’
with no connectivity where signals from base stations
on the top of tall buildings travel struggle to reach
ground level. Mapping is likely to become critical to 5G
deployments in the millimetre wave bands which will
support high bandwidth applications.
The economic and societal importance that can be
attached to the robust delivery of digital services
is without doubt and it is recognised by the UK
Government in its 2015 policy paper The Digital
Communications Infrastructure Strategy. This paper 10
considers that:
“Improvements in digital connectivity have supported a
vibrant digital economy within the UK, currently worth
more than £120 billion each year. The digital sector has
grown over seven times faster than the economy as a
whole between 2008 and 2013”.

5
Where 3.4-3.8 GHz has been identified as a primary band in Europe.
6
Where 24.25-27.5 GHz has been identified as the EU “pioneer band”.
7
http://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-first-us-carrier-complete-5g-radio-specifications-pre-commercial-trials-continue-full
8
A means of adding directionality to transmission and reception.
9
Connectivity to the core network.
10
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-digital-communications-infrastructure-strategy/the-digital-communications-
infrastructure-strategy

10 11
Why do we Need 5G?
Industry forecasts predict that the huge increase in
demand for ultrafast data services, driven by access to
ever smarter and more powerful mobile devices, shows
no sign of abating. This demand will be reinforced by
stronger and closer inter-linking across public and private
sectors (e.g. transport, health, education, etc) that can
also benefit from access to robust, reliable and high
speed mobile connectivity.
The shift to mobile in recent years is evidenced by
Google’s mobile-first indexing, 80% of Facebook
advertising revenue now coming from mobile, and
mobile’s increasing share of ecommerce revenues 11 .
Ever smarter devices and the supporting networks will
empower users and service providers to benefit from
access to networks that will have capacity to deliver
a more consistent high speed data experience, lower
latency, high reliability for more real time applications
and the ability to inter-connect a massive range of
devices and sensors (M2M). So-called 5G networks.
Users increasingly expect to live and work in a more
mobile way, conducting their businesses and social lives
on mobile devices. Mobile data usage 12 is forecast to
undergo extraordinary growth. By 2020, global mobile
IP traffic is expected to reach a monthly run rate of 30.6
exabytes, as compared to 3.7 exabytes in 2015 13 . That’s
a significant compound annual growth rate of 53%.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 14 has
summarised the next generation 5G usage scenarios in
the following way:
The most significant source of data demand from mobile
networks is video, which represented more than half
of global mobile data traffic beginning in 2012, and is
forecast to grow at a CAGR of 62% between 2015 and
2020, higher than the overall average mobile traffic
CAGR of 53% 15 . Video is expected to form 75% of mobile
data traffic by 2020 16 .
This change in consumption habits – where Ericsson
research 17 shows that since 2012 the average consumer
globally has increased their viewing on mobile devices
by 4 hours per week, while their fixed screen viewing
has declined by 2.5 hours per week – may ultimately
challenge the commercial viability of broadcast
networks. In the short-term, it is a particularly challenging
trend for IP network operators, given that video requires
orders of magnitude more bits to be transmitted than
voice. Immersive, high frame rate 360-degree video
would add to that challenge.
One consequence of the growth of video in both fixed
and mobile contexts is the resulting acceleration of busy-
hour traffic in relation to average traffic growth, because
video usage tends to occur during evening hours and has
a “prime time” 18 .
In order to meet the growing mobile video demand, the
5G ecosystem will integrate different types of networks
to ensure a cost-effective distribution of video services.
For instance, the provision of OTT content and other
broadcast-like services will likely take place through
networks that integrate satellite broadcast of content to
local/domestic servers and WiFi/WiGig distribution to
the end user/device.
In addition to meeting growing data demand, 5G will
also contribute towards that growth. As mobile network
connection speeds increase, the average bit rate of
content accessed through the mobile network will
increase. Although 4G connections represented only
14% of mobile connections in 2015, they already account
for 47% of mobile data traffic, while 3G connections
represented 34% of mobile connections and 43% of the
traffic. In 2015, a 4G connection generated six times
more traffic on average than a non 4G connection 19.
The implication is clear: higher speeds encourage the
adoption and usage of high-bandwidth applications.
High Definition (HD) video will be more prevalent, and
the proportion of streamed content, as compared to
side-loaded content, is also expected to increase with
average mobile network connection speed, so traffic
can increase dramatically, even while the total amount of
time spent watching video remains relatively constant.
However, due to the small size of mobile devices’
screens, growth in consumer demand to watch video in
HD on these devices – whether met by 5G or by other
technologies - is uncertain.
But when autonomous cars usher in the era of Mobility
as a Service (MaaS) - estimated to be from 2021 -
the combination of autonomous driving and in-car
entertainment will extend the office and the living
room, the car becoming the second space people use
for entertainment and leisure (potentially with more
space and comfier seats than today’s cars). There will
be more time and space for consuming media (and yes,
advertising) streamed in by 5G; and we expect screens
may be large and some of that content may be in HD or
Ultra High Definition (UHD).

11
Mobile commerce revenue will account for 50% of U.S. digital commerce revenue by 2017, Source: Gartner
12
Cellular only, excludes Wi-Fi offload.
13
Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Forecast 2015–2020.
14
ITU-R Recommendation M.2083-0 (2015).
15
Source: Cisco VNI Mobile, 2016.
16
Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Forecast 2015–2020.
17
TV and media 2016, November 2016.
18
Source: Cisco VNI Mobile, 2016.
19
Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2015–2020.

12 13
While automotive digital technology has been focused
on optimizing the internal functions of cars or on the
use of sensor technologies for the monitoring and
identification of objects near vehicles, attention has been
recently shifting towards developing communication
technologies that integrate cars with smart devices via
the Internet. Satellite communications, as part of the 5G
ecosystem, will have a role in providing resilience for
vehicle connectivity, and ensure that that connected
vehicles can be a reality everywhere, with autonomous
vehicles not far behind.
But automotive, like many of the anticipated use cases
for 5G, has global ecosystems of its own, and the
integration of connectivity will have to be consistent with
those global eco-systems.
5G will have to meet the increased capacity and mobility
requirements and will have to do it in a consistent
matter – the ability to be connected at a reasonable
speed everywhere will prove to be a key factor in the
success of 5G and one that will set it apart from previous
generations. 5G networks are therefore expected to
integrate different access technologies – mobile, fixed,
satellite, etc. – to ensure that the requirements for both
higher capacity and ubiquity are met.
5G technology will operate in an environment with
continued expected exponential growth in data traffic
14
and consistent connectivity. Additionally, IOT will result
in the current array of user mobile devices being dwarfed
by more than 25 billion devices, sending data without any
human interaction to be processed “in the cloud”, that
are anticipated by Cisco to be connected to the Internet
by 2020. These will include everything from sensors
in cars and kitchen appliances to telemetry devices,
remote video cameras, and attendant-free parking
facilities. Additional data will be generated by millions
of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (which can
be thought of as a mobile collection of sensors), where
Hitachi estimates that 25 gigabytes 20 of data would be
uploaded per vehicle to the cloud per hour.
IoT and cars will generate exploding data demand for
network operators, combined with an increasing diversity
of how data is demanded – both the amount sent and
received, and how sensitive to delay its use is – and a
requirement for truly global coverage.
Connectivity requirements moving forward will require
networks able to cope with increases in data volumes
and increasing dependence on mobile data as well as to
handle the complexity of a vast increase in the numbers
of devices connecting to the internet (and the different
ways in which they do this).
To support the projected growth in data in an affordable
way the economics of network deployment, including
the ability to introduce large numbers of new cells and
to integrate different access technologies, will need
to be improved. Stakeholders need to support this
objective and the right regulatory and standardization
environments are needed to incentivise new investments-
including the availability of spectrum and access to
sites at affordable rates and without over burdensome
planning regimes – and the development of a 5G
ecosystem that delivers cost-effective solutions.
But unless subscribers are willing to pay more, in real
terms, than they currently do for 4G, the huge investment
necessary to deploy 5G may not happen – or, at least,
may not happen early or the benefits be widespread.
If hundreds of thousands of small cells are needed, along
with better fixed asset deployment maps, then tools
must be developed to make it cheaper for operators
to plan for them. The notion of spectrum pricing when
the radio infrastructure will not readily support many
competitors must also be tackled head-on and quickly.
This is not the way policy has operated to date. In fact
it nearly always lags technology, and despite its best
efforts technology can always be expected to move
faster. The Government is already taking steps to address
this matter. We would urge them to do this promptly and
effectively.
20
Source: http://qz.com/344466/connected-cars-will-send-25-gigabytes-of-data-to-the-cloud-every-hour/.
15
 What New Services Will 5G Enable?
5G is expected to offer substantial value additions in six
key areas:
1. Higher fixed and mobile bandwidth, in both
directions;
2. Support very high terminal densities e.g. supplying
connectivity in a crowd or on a train, while also
supporting massive IOT;
3. Lower latency, where 1ms is being targeted, required
for traffic safety e.g. collision avoidance of self-
driving cars, remote surgery and remote diagnostics
and intervention (e.g. in ambulances) would also
require ultra low latency, but supplying latency as
low as 1ms would be very expensive to achieve;
4. Seamless connectivity across different technologies,
licensed and unlicensed spectrum, potentially across
both public and private networks;
5. Lower energy consumption, up to ten year battery
life for low-power, machine-type devices, but with
5G offering economies of scale unmatched by LPWA
(Low Power, Wide Area) technologies such as Sigfox
or LORA.
Credit: Ericsson
16
6. Faster mobility, where there is potential to deliver
connectivity at speeds of up to 500 km/h to serve
passengers in the fastest trains (although satellite
may have a complementary role here).
Despite its potential to usher in a step change, there
is a risk that 5G is seen as being a panacea, the
solution to all ills and the enabler of the Internet of
Everything. Additionally the knowledge gaps and
cultural differences between key verticals and telecoms
providers (and their vendors) could slow down the
degree to which 5G technology adds value to some
sectors.
Although achieving some of the 5G target value
additions, such as ultra-low latency, may not ultimately
prove cost-effective, if significant progress is made
towards offering these value additions, this would
enable 5G to support a range of demand sources more
efficiently than current technology(ies) could. The
figure below highlights some of these:
Significantly lower latency than offered by 4G, even if
1ms couldn’t in the end be justified given the few uses
likely to require it, would enable 5G to support new
applications such as fully autonomous vehicles with
4D mapping (expected to be on our roads by 2020-
21), vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure
communications, social gaming, and Augmented
or Virtual Reality (AR/VR) which is likely to have
applications we cannot imagine, but certainly has
Credit: Ericsson and Arthur D. Little
Faster broadband everywhere
5G will enable network operators to meet the consumer
demand for ubiquitous communications and ever higher
downstream bandwidth, when they are using mobile
devices, principally driven by video consumption:
pervasive video.
As consumers keep demanding more and more video
everywhere, whether watching iPlayer, streaming their
experiences, or simply downloading webpages whose
adverts are increasingly video, mobile technology must
keep up. The seemingly insatiable consumer demand for
taking and sharing photos 22 contributes, too. So faster,
consistent connectivity is a must.
21
The 5G Business Potential, 27 February 2017, Ericsson.
22
In mid-2016, the proportion of consumers taking photos on their smartphones on a daily basis had increased in a year from 11% to 27%; and
2 trillion photos are sent, posted, forwarded or back-up from a handset globally per annum. Source: Photo sharing, trillions and rising, Deloitte
September 2016.
applications in gaming, in sports and in simulations and
training (“learn with the master”).
Ericsson has forecast 21 that 5G business will be worth
$1.2 trillion, and mobile operators could benefit from
an additional 34% revenue from 5G-enabled industry
digitalization market opportunities by 2026; 5G business
forecast sector composition shown in the figure below:
With the majority of mobile traffic either originating or
terminating indoors today, Wi-Fi is now a robust access
technology for mobile data offload. In 2015, Wi-Fi
offload traffic from mobile devices continued to exceed
4G mobile traffic, and, by 2018, Wi-Fi traffic is set to
exceed all 2G, 3G and 4G cellular traffic combined.
However in the US, where increasing numbers of
operators are now offering unlimited data plans, early
data from Sprint is that Wi-Fi offload decreased when
subscribers were on unlimited packages.
In a recent market study, ABI Research forecasts that
rapidly increasing adoption of 4G and Wi-Fi will drive
monthly in-building traffic to 53 exabytes per month by
2020.
17
 “Every 10 or 15 years a big new platform comes along. We had desktop computers, then
browsers and the internet, now we have mobile phones and each one is better than the
one before it.

“As people look for richer and richer ways to express themselves, just like people in the
past have shared a lot of text and photos on Facebook, we think in the future more of that
is going to be video, and more of these augmented reality tools I think are going to be an
important part of delivering that experience and making that fun to use and expressive as
it can be.

“The phone is probably going to be the mainstream consumer platform [where] a lot of
these AR features become mainstream, rather than a glasses form factor that people will
wear on their face.”

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg

Credit: Matthew Buckland & Philip Langley (http://matthewbuckland.com/)

Augmenting our world
It has been said that the move to 3G was about taking
us to the picture era, and that the move to 4G was
about video, but 5G will be all about connecting our
entire world.
When users – people or things – have reliable, fast,
seamless, low latency connectivity where they want
it, and with the economies of scale which 5G will
offer, then this will enable a range of new services and
applications to be cost-effectively offered. This will
include services which couldn’t practically be offered
by existing technologies, including the ability to
augment our world, essentially comprising three types
of services:
1. Augmented Reality (AR) – overlaying the real world
around us with data, which may be virtual objects
(e.g. as in Pokémon 23 Go, the most successful
mobile game in history 24 ) or may be data pulled
from related files (e.g. patient data in a hospital) or
generated by the internet of things (e.g. the safety
or spare capacity of a device can be overlaid upon it);
2. Virtual Reality (VR) – where a person enters a world
entirely generated by software;
3. The Tactile internet – where a person may engage
with another over distance, encoding touch and
enabling a remote user to experience the sensation
as if they were there. In extremis, this could be used
to carry out remote surgical procedures, although
the tactile internet will undoubtedly foster many less
dramatic applications.
VR and AR could produce some interesting demand
characteristics which only 5G could meet, whether,
driving very realistic cars, flying very realistic planes
and killing very realistic Zombies, with players all over
the world is probably a nearer term and high revenue
use of the technology, given how much time and money
consumers are already spending on them.
Gaming – a sector where the UK punches above its
weight - traditionally has pushed what devices were
capable of: feel being shot in a video game. To avoid
disorientation, all of the stimuli would have to be
perfectly in sync with no discernable time-lag.
We can also see where VR could enhance enjoyment of
spectator sports. While football is a sport with millions
of fans who display a high wiliness to pay, there will be
a range of other sports where adding VR could offer a
really immersive experience for fans, such as “standing”
behind Murray when Djokovic is serving or being on the
receiving end of Anthony Joshua’s knock out punch.
How about playing on stage as a member of your
favourite band? It’s already here.
However, as with IOT, despite the attention paid to
consumer applications, it may prove to be enterprise
applications which lead the way on adoption, where use
cases include virtual product demonstrations, training
and 360 degree video tours.
Combined with tactile Internet - the complete
perception of form, position, surface texture, stiffness,
friction, temperature, etc. - VR could go way beyond
gaming, integrating into many facets of our life: from
entertainment, education and social experiences,
remote sensing and physical therapy, exploration,
controlling robots from afar. Sooner than we think, we
may have ubiquitous virtual reality systems providing
rich multisensorial experiences. Rather than being
an alternate reality, VR will be incorporated into
reality, discreet technology puts consumers in an
immersive environment with an unimpeded view of the
surrounding environment and a broad field of view.
The Tactile Internet would enable remote skillset
delivery, where students all over the world could learn
from masters. Then there is actual remote surgery
where reliability and low latency are literally a matter of
life and death.

23
©2016 Niantic, Inc. ©2016 Pokémon. ©1995–2016 Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc. Pokémon and Pokémon character names are
trademarks of Nintendo.
24
Pokémon Go was the fastest mobile game to hit $600 million in revenues, according to market researcher App Annie, with the total time spent
in Pokémon Go was almost as much as the next 19 games combined. Pokémon Go delivered $600 million in mobile AR revenue in its first three
months alone, making more money through the year than the entire VR games software market in 2016.

18 19

Transport
As we move into a world of autonomous vehicles, and
looking ahead to Mobility as a Service, cars won’t just
be talking to each other - letting each other know
what’s going on in real time and using each other as
relays - they’ll be talking to their manufacturers, city
or regional traffic management systems, and nearly
everything on the road too. Traffic lights and roadsigns
will be optimised.
Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) systems will allow
vehicles to communicate to traffic signals or other
stationary devices such as toll booths and freeway
ramp signals, so a driver knows when a detour is
necessary. Once V2V technology is in enough cars, the
accompanying V2I capability will create a vast network
of roadway connectivity, like an “Internet of cars.”
The need for safety requires very high resiliency and
seamless interoperation of sensing and communicating
subsystems and highly accurate and up-to-date
maps. A truly global coverage will therefore play a
paramount role in the successful deployment of some
5G applications.
In addition, comfort and value-added services will
be made available to passengers, including video
20
Credit: Intel
communications, media streaming, personal home
synchronisation. As a mobile infotainment space, and
with no driver to distract, cars could be comfortable
environments with large displays, extending the time
spent consuming audio-visual media. A considerable
proportion of that media could be HD or UHD and, on
motorways, requiring high speed handover.
The ability of 5G to serve customers at higher speed
than 4G will provide better connectivity to passengers
on high speed trains.
Sensors and industrial control
The ongoing investment in Sensors and Smart Cities
(e.g. streetlight control, parking management, traffic
management, pollution, rain water, ground sensing,
smart metering) will result in large “fields” of sensors
being aggregated, and using an eco-system of 5G
technology including satellite and microwave back haul
links.
Unlicensed Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) will meet the
connectivity requirements of these sensors up to a
point, as most of these devices are expected to only
send or receive small amounts of data at a time which
won’t be very time-sensitive, but when we have millions
of sensors in a large building it will be best to aggregate
and use higher bandwidth communications.
Sensor fusion is a process by which data from several
different sensors are “fused” to compute something
more than could be determined by any one sensor.
Cloud services will also need to be optimised for this
type of demand.
Industrial internet and future factories will need low
latency wireless connectivity which doesn’t require a
SIM card in each terminal or sensor. Industrial control
systems will monitor and regulate the operations
of critical infrastructure, such as power grids and
transportation systems. Autonomous and freely
moving robots which operate next to human workers
will become commonplace. VR applications providing
remote, virtual access to factory floor necessitate
resilient means of communications with fairly high
bit rates and low latencies. Neither LTE nor WiFi is
optimised to support dense deployments of terminals,
with high levels of security, as will exist in many
industrial environments.
Health and social care
New “Digital Health” technology will enable health/care
spending to be re-focussed from cure to prevention.
The point of care will shift from hospital-based and
specialist-focussed out towards to a more distributed,
patient-centric model in GP surgeries, care homes
and patients’ own accommodation, with the patient
and their social network increasingly substituting for
healthcare professionals when and where it’s convenient
for the patient and delivers benefit.
This fundamental change in approach will be essential
given that, in the Developed World, the increase in
healthcare spending is principally due to the spiralling
costs of treating preventable chronic diseases (such
as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and
Parkinson’s disease).
Already in the US, about half of all adults have one
or more chronic conditions, and seven of the top 10
causes of deaths occur as a result of preventable
chronic diseases 25 . The future of healthcare lies in
how we tackle chronic disease and avoid health-risky
behaviours. Connected technology, both consumer- and
clinician-facing, has an essential role to play here.
This connected technology will encompass a range
of mobile devices (including wearables and watches),
whose primary function isn’t medical, plus in-home
diagnostic devices which remain in the home but send
data to the cloud for clinicians to access (or, more likely,
where AI flags data for investigation). A proliferation
of mobile devices with secondary medical/health
25
https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/
functionality is potentially challenging for current
medical devices approval processes; additionally there
are likely to be concerns about access to all of the data
being generated.
But the benefits of this transition could be enormous:
healthcare professionals focussing on need rather than
demand, and by providing consumers with diagnostic
data, enabling them to make lifestyle choices early,
while the opportunity to make a meaningful change
to outcomes still exists. Additionally wearables hold
out the promise of accurate advance warning of, for
example, epileptic seizures. As countries struggle to
keep funding current health systems, this may be a
choice we can’t not make.
Of course not all mHealth applications will need 5G
to provide connectivity. Smart dressings, monitoring
conditions in a patient’s wound, may use a short-range
wireless link to transmit data to a nurses’ station. In-
home diagnostics (e.g. reading blood sugar levels)
may, in many cases, be connected to Health and Care
services (subject to security concerns) by domestic
WiFi. But the wide range of uses being developed
already will undoubtedly generate some new innovative
uses which 5G will be ideally placed to support, such
as smart ambulances sending data ahead to an A&E
department. Additionally, about 15% of UK homes
currently have no active fixed line.
Looking ahead, people won’t be “patients” first, that
is those seeking healthcare, they’ll be individuals
with more access to information than ever before.
This also means that medtech companies will have
unprecedented access to these audiences of users, in
more places, for valuable insights.
The promise of remote surgery would require much
lower latency than is offered by current mobile
technology - it may require higher bandwidth too. With
an 8k UHD endoscope the resolution on offer would
enable fine details to be seen, even with the camera
backed off to provide room for surgical implements.
Credit: uMotif
21
Spectrum
Central to the success of the 5G future is the discussion
about future radio spectrum requirements and
the identification of new spectrum resources that
are relevant to the 5G research and technological
developments.
A range of spectrum resources will be required to
satisfy the diverse requirements anticipated for 5G
networks. The future will see the deployment of systems
likely to be utilising existing mobile network frequency
bands as well as operation in new contiguous spectrum
in higher frequency bands.
The identification of harmonised spectrum - preferably
at the global level, but at least regionally - is vital
to ensure the economies of scale for mass market
especially for the new technologies that are likely to be
more tightly linked to the frequencies assigned for use.
In the international context the ITU 26 has agreed to
consider the future spectrum for 5G at the World Radio
Conference planned for 2019. The ITU and the WRC-15
recognised the importance of selecting spectrum which
can be harmonised at the global level.
To achieve spectrum harmonisation, any selected
band should therefore be within the spectrum ranges
determined by the ITU Resolution 238 (WRC-15) 27 .
The ITU will carry out studies to develop views on the
potential of specific bands for harmonised use for 5G
systems that will influence the final decisions in 2019.
The consensus roadmap agreed by Administrations
at the WRC-15 with regards to candidate bands for
5G is therefore clear and vital to ensure harmonised
allocations / identifications and their well-known
benefits.
The European Commission has already placed the
spectrum discussion centre table and has published a
strategic roadmap for 5G spectrum 28 , which CEPT 29
has mirrored with their own 5G roadmap, and is already
funding and carrying out 5G research related work
(under the Horizon 2020 programme) to complement
the spectrum plans.
The European Commission supports a technology-
neutral approach and the use of all existing mobile
bands, and has identified 700 MHz and 3.4 – 3.8 GHz
as primary bands for the introduction of 5G, and is
carrying out studies considering the 26 GHz band
as a pioneer band suitable for the development of
European harmonisation. Industry is actively developing
5G technology and has started the standardisation
activities essential for mass market support.
It is essential that a clear strategy be adopted to make
candidate bands available for re-use by 5G without
undue delay, with incumbents provided with the
necessary protection and sufficient notice of intent in
order to adopt a coordinated approach for mitigation
techniques between incumbents and 5G.
Ofcom has played a consistent leadership role in
identifying the optimal candidate spectrum bands
which should be offered to the market early across the
European Union. While industry has some concerns that
Brexit may reduce the UK’s influence, regulatory and
spectrum standardisation is principally handled within
the ITU (where Brexit may increase the UK’s influence),
and the 3GPP 30 leads on technical standards.
Timely access to spectrum for 5G will inevitably involve
greater sharing with existing and adjacent services. As
well as bringing a greater quantity of spectrum into use
quicker, sharing mechanisms can also fulfil the National
Infrastructure Commission’s recommendation 31 for
spectrum sharing to serve the needs of communities,
smaller providers, niche and sub-national providers,
businesses and universities as well as enabling national
operators to extend their services more cost-effectively.
Re-purposing (or re-farming) spectrum is a long lead
time activity that needs to be carried out at both the
national level and in the context of the international
developments. techUK proposes that whilst the
international activities develop it is important that the
national considerations commence in a timely manner
enabling the UK to shape the international activities and
be ready to act to facilitate the roll out of 5G networks
in the UK alongside the international framework.
Therefore techUK supports the strategic focus of the
UK Spectrum Policy Forum (SPF) and especially those
elements associated with examining the identification
of spectrum for 5G in the UK. The UK will need to
actively consider the detail and direction required
for 5G spectrum planning and management taking
into account the regional and global picture as well
as maintaining the effectiveness of other UK services
using these bands. The SPF should be encouraged to
develop UK views on the radio spectrum matters and
ensure these are reflected through the appropriate
channels in the UK in order to influence the regional and
international activities.
If the UK is to be a leader in 5G deployment, we must
determine well in advance what is the optimal method
of making spectrum available to the market, both to
mobile operators and potentially to enterprise users.
We question whether the legacy method of awarding
exclusive UK-wide spectrum licences will secure optimal
use of this spectrum.
Ofcom should initiate a debate with industry to plan
trials in pioneer bands and to determine the optimal
form of releasing spectrum to the market (e.g. award
mechanisms, auction, beauty contest and shared
access, regional vs national licences), and methods of
mitigation between 5G and incumbent uses.
RECOMMENDATION
Ofcom should initiate a debate with industry
to plan trials in pioneer bands and to
determine the optimal form of releasing 5G
spectrum bands to the market, and methods
of mitigation between 5G and incumbent
uses.

26
The International Telecommunication Union.
27
Which resolves “to conduct and complete in time for WRC-19 the appropriate sharing and compatibility studies, taking into account the
protection of services to which the band is allocated on a primary basis, for the frequency bands: 24.25-27.5 GHz, 37-40.5 GHz, 42.5-43.5 GHz,
45.5-47 GHz, 47.2-50.2 GHz, 50.4-52.6 GHz, 66-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz, which have allocations to the mobile service on a primary basis; and
31.8-33.4 GHz, 40.5-42.5 GHz and 47-47.2 GHz, which may require additional allocations to the mobile service on a primary basis”.
28
RADIO SPECTRUM POLICY GROUP: STRATEGIC ROADMAP TOWARDS 5G FOR EUROPE: Opinion on spectrum related aspects for next-
generation wireless systems (5G) - RSPG16-032 FINAL
29
The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations.
30
3rd Generation Partnership Project.
31
Recommendation 7, National Infrastructure Commission report “Connected Future”, 2017. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/
uploads/attachment_data/file/577906/CONNECTED_FUTURE_ACCESSIBLE.pdf

22 23
Does the Government
Have Any Role to Play?
Yes. Early launch of 5G is expected provide a boost to
growth. Early launch would also send a clear message
to inward investors that the UK was serious about
remaining a centre of technology-driven growth. The
UK did not launch 4G early.
Even if 5G services could be launched in some of the
spectrum already used for 3G or 4G, 5G will need
more spectrum. Although there is already additional
spectrum available in the UK that is being used for
pre-standardisation 5G trials elsewhere in the world,
Ofcom, on behalf of the Government, will need to
award additional spectrum, where a viable means
of coexistence is identified or possible sharing with
additional mitigation techniques adopted. Ofcom will
also determine what, if any, 5G coverage obligation
may look like, an issue which has been highlighted by
the National Infrastructure Commission in their recent
report Connected Future 32 , and design the award
of new spectrum in accordance with its statutory
obligations.
Coverage obligations for 1G to 4G originally 33 set
milestones for connectivity at residences only, and
completely ignored roads, public transport and where
consumers work, study and go for entertainment. As
5G further weaves mobile connectivity into almost
every facet of our lives, a coverage obligation for
700 MHz with no geographic element or a focus on
major transport corridors would look increasingly
untenable, and do little to present the UK as being a
place optimised for inward investment. Ofcom may also
have to consider permitting, perhaps even encouraging,
spectrum sharing amongst licensees, particularly in
rural areas where the business case for deployment by
any operator is marginal.
Given the presence of incumbents in some 5G candidate
bands, and the short range of spectrum intended to
offer capacity, if Ofcom were flexible in considering
offering sub-UK licences in the relevant auctions, then
32
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/connected-future .
33
Following a 2014 agreement between the UK Government and mobile network operators, a geographic coverage obligation was added.
34
5G Networks for Policy Makers, January 2017.
24
this could increase the geographic area over which such
spectrum were deployed and the likelihood that large
channel widths could be accessed by some operators at
least in some locations.
Relying on spectrum trading (where trades involving
spectrum designated by Ofcom to be “mobile” requires
their prior approval) to achieve this could introduce
delays into deployment. The desirability of Ofcom
adopting a more flexible, innovative approach to
spectrum management was highlighted in the recent
National Infrastructure Commission report, and echoed
by the IET 34 - techUK very much supports that.
RECOMMENDATION
Ofcom should both encourage competition
amongst mobile operators and facilitate
quality coverage.
Ensuring the benefits of 5G connectivity are
spread widely may require far greater sharing
of infrastructure and spectrum, combined
with access to public assets, and a willingness
by Ofcom to consider sub-UK licensing.
5G is also expected to result in changes to the
infrastructure of the mobile networks, as hundreds
of thousands of small cells may need to be deployed
in London alone, more-or-less simultaneously, in
additional to the larger masts already in place. This may
have implications for access to local authority “street
furniture” (e.g. lights) and access to private buildings,
including planning consent. Consumer benefits could
result from Government co-ordination.
Government facilitating, or directly investing, in early
deployment of 5G infrastructure on roads and public
transport would be of huge benefit to kick-start mass
adoption of the new technology in the UK, and hence
attract early private investment in innovative new
uses, helping to make the UK the European leader in
commercial use of 5G.
UK mobile subscribers have benefitted in the size of
their bills from intense competition in recent years, but
private investment by mobile operators in upgrading
their networks to 5G, and then quickly making that
technology available beyond the centre of major cities,
must in part be dependent upon the profitability of
those UK operations. So the considerable promise of 5G
may require consumers to pay more than they do now
for 4G.
Addressing new 5G capabilities will require new
innovations in the fields of user interfacing, display
technology, processing power, low power consumption,
radio interfaces, sensor development, network
configuration, backhauling and security to name a
few. techUK encourages initiatives to address these
aspects and maximise the opportunities to exploit the
creativeness and inventiveness of UK R&D capabilities
both in industry and academia.
A concerted effort from government and business
is needed to ensure the UK’s creativity and
entrepreneurial spirit is focused on ensuring the UK
becomes a world leader in developing and adopting
applications that use 5G connectivity. This would be
boosted if the government put in place an ambitious
programme that coordinated and amplified the work in
this space of businesses and public organisations.
Government action can also encourage the public
sector to be a catalyst and strategic leadership is
starting to happen, noting for example, the Cabinet
Office and Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s
Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Portfolio
Board.
More and more government services across the board
are being delivered electronically and on-line. Future
5G networks are expected to have the potential to
inter-connect data services and cross-service/sector
networks with a “network of networks” vision. The
improved inter-connectivity along with the enhanced
capabilities of 5G technology are expected to bring
benefits to a wide range of organisations both in the
private and public sector.
techUK encourages the government initiatives
to support the development of the UK’s digital
communications infrastructure and is ready to help
build a bridge with industry to build the foundations of
the 5G mobile broadband future and push the UK to the
front of 5G development.
techUK can assist the private sector side through
seminars and workshops to bring together parties who
may benefit from understanding what the future 5G
inter-connected world can offer. The development of
innovative applications and service delivery should be
encouraged and will be central to the digital economy
for businesses and consumers.
techUK supports the governmental policy objectives
that seek to place the UK at the centre of the European
and global R&D activities. An example like the
government/industry co-funded 5G Innovation Centre
at Surrey University, and the work of Bristol is Open,
is a welcome development in this respect. We also
support the investment, announced in the 2016 Autumn
Statement, in local fibre + 5G trials.
techUK also supports the initiative by the Department
of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) with Ordnance
Survey (OS) to develop a groundbreaking planning
and mapping tool that will be instrumental for the
national rollout of 5G technology - the next generation
of wireless communications needed to bring Internet-
connected devices into everyday life.
OS will lead a consortium that includes the 5G
Innovation Centre and the Met Office, and together they
will be building a ‘digital twin’ of the real world, which
will be used to determine the prime locations to place
the radio antennae (access points) necessary to enable
a 5G network. The planning and mapping tool will be
trialled first in Bournemouth; the tool has the potential
to be scaled up to cover the rest of the UK, and shared
with other countries as they develop their own 5G
networks. Surveying for parts of Bournemouth, which
is a test bed for the national rollout of 5G, is already
underway and will be used to generate the new model.
25
Addressing obstacles to
early/rapid deployment
In telecoms markets, supply always leads demand.
But with a high level of competition in the UK, low
consumer bills (by international standards), plus plenty
of life left in 4G (still undergoing technology refreshes),
for the UK to become a 5G leader it will be essential
that the right investment incentives are in place for
operators.
Demand for new applications and regulatory enablers,
such as the ability to build out many new sites cost-
effectively and without over burdensome planning rules
and availability of suitable spectrum, will encourage
widespread deployment of 5G.
If the UK is to be a leader in 5G, there also needs to be a
much more proactive and joined-up approach towards
deploying the necessary infrastructure than the UK has
had until now.
5G will utilise a range of spectrum bands, where it is
expected that demand for high bandwidth will be met
by the use of carrier aggregation in bands currently
used or allocated to the mobile services and higher
frequency spectrum than is currently used by 4G.
That will require a high number of small cells to be
deployed in a relatively short period of time, and each
must have fibre connectivity. Therefore the planning
system must allow both those small cells, and the
cabinets needed for fibre, to be deployed.
As 5G will almost certainly be deployed in the centre of
London first, where it currently can take up to 2 years
to get planning approval, the UK cannot be a 5G leader
unless it can ensure that 100,000s of urban small cells
could be efficiently deployed, where and when they
were needed, with fibre ready to go - and ideally with
the roads being dug up only once.
Those cells would be in addition to existing macro cells
and, in addition to traditional rooftops, would need to
also be on the sides of buildings, street furniture, and
inside offices, shopping malls etc.
techUK strongly suggests that there needs to be strong
and consistent collaboration involving Central (with
DCLG lead) and Local Government, Ofcom, mobile
operators, fibre providers, infrastructure operators, the
British Property Federation and probably providers of
mapping services such as Ordnance Survey. techUK,
working with London First, has started to bring together
such a group.
Additionally, with the shorter wavelength spectrum
to be used by 5G (by comparison to 4G), it will be
more important than ever for the mobile operators
to know exactly where, and what, things (“clutter”)
are. For example, the construction materials for
modern buildings can have considerable impact on
the ability of 5G signals to enter those buildings; also,
given the relatively short range of high bandwidth 5G
communications, it will be essential to know where
things such as lampposts are (they often aren’t exactly
where they were planned to be) to ensure that links in
5G networks work.
techUK very much supports the fact that the DCMS with
Ordnance Survey is undertaking the development of a
groundbreaking planning and mapping tool that will be
instrumental for the national rollout of 5G.
As 5G approaches, the demands on backhaul will
escalate. Densification in the form of 3G and 4G small
cells was only the start, Autonomous Vehicles (AV), IoT,
Smart Cities, Machine to Machine (M2M), Ultra Reliable,
Low Latency Communications (uRLLC) and of course
Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) applications will
all push their data to backhaul.
Ericsson estimates that by 2025 high capacity mobile
sites will require backhaul of 3-5 Gbps, with “extreme”
capacity sites requiring backhaul of 10-20 Gbps 35 .
Such high capacity backhaul will be achieved by a
combination of pervasive fibre and wireless backhaul
(which might utilise the same ultrahigh frequency
technology as 5G 36 ) to provide the bandwidth and
low latency required; satellite backhaul may play a
complementary role.
Moving processing and content closer to the user
by making base stations smarter (e.g. Mobile Edge
Computing or MEC) will help, but MEC will itself rely on
low latency ultra-high throughput to perform.
RECOMMENDATION
There must be a much more proactive and
joined-up approach towards deploying urban
telecoms infrastructure.
This requires strong and consistent
collaboration involving Central Government,
Local Government, Ofcom, mobile operators,
fibre providers, infrastructure operators and
property owners.

35
Ericsson Microwave Outlook, October 2016.
36
mmWaves at 26 GHz and above.

26 27
About techUK
techUK represents the companies and technologies
that are defining today the world that we will live
in tomorrow. The tech industry is creating jobs and
growth across the UK. 900 companies are members of
techUK. Collectively they employ more than 700,000
people. These companies range from leading FTSE 100
companies to new innovative start-ups. The majority of
our members are small and medium sized businesses.
www.techuk.org

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