CPE - Customer Premises Equipment Network Investments

In the first year of commercial 5G adoption in 2019, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) was launched as the first bunch of services in more than 30 commercial 5G networks.

5G FWA: Game Changer for fixed broadband

Especially in Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region, FWA has become standard practice. Respectable UK investment banks and consulting firms have distributed their industry reports, aggregating and featuring the significance 5G FWA will make for network operators, hardware vendors, and industry network players.

Commercial progress is a long way beyond expectations

As per an article by Mobile World Live, 5G is the quickest developing mobile network technology as far as commercial popularity. In the second year of commercial adoption, 4G got just 7,000,000 clients around the world. For 5G, this number is required to build hugely to 300 million.

As per the report from the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), in the first year of 5G commercial adoption before the end of DeDecember 2019, more than 60 customer premises equipment (CPE) products had been delivered to the global market. Compared to 4G, it required three years to reach a comparative scale.

Since the distribution of the FWA report in August 2019, FWA has surpassed expectations in three regions. To start with, more than 60 administrators bought 5G spectrum and licenses by January 2020. The spectrum for 5G mostly incorporates C-band, millimeter-wave (mmWave), and 700 MHz. Also, the food chain is growing a lot quicker compared to 3G and 4G, both as far as terminal diversity and cost. At long last, there is as yet solid demand for both mobile and fixed broadband connections. Taken together, these three variables address the main thrust behind the accelerated FWA development.

5G Big Capacity Fosters Big Innovation

Huge MIMO and other trendsetting technologies combined with high-spectrum bandwidth empower 5G cells to grow altogether for inventive commercial services of a wide variety. This undeniable level of 5G network capacity makes it possible to enhance.

In certain networks, administrators can provide more than 500 Mbps per user rate to both home and enterprise users and launch a 4K video as an FWA value-added service. In the Middle East, administrators started offering 5G B2B personal lines to high-reliability and DL-UL-rich enterprise users.

This is only the beginning. We have seen that administrators are fostering a more noteworthy interest in inventive services VR + FWA is an optimal blend in the domestic broadband market 5G PCs and cloud gaming are turning into a reality because of improved dropout and delayed performance.

Identifying the tremendous potential of CPE as an optimal portal for smart homes, many merchants, including Huawei, have developed a wide range of tech-savvy home functions and have effectively integrated them into CPE. Examples are typically identified with home security, smart gadgets, and e-health.

mmWave or sub 6 GHz?

The two bonds have their special advantages. mmWave provides high bandwidth, allowing 5G cells up to a hundred times higher capacity. This makes it practically identical to FFTH at home as far as speed and throughput. Therefore, eagerness for traffic services, including 4K video, 8K video, gigabyte access for homes and enterprises, video surveillance, and B2B private lines, can be implemented more productively. Also, it doesn't take into consideration large coverage and is accordingly appropriate in metropolitan regions where long-distance coverage isn't needed. What's more, reference point sources and power supplies are promptly accessible, and the poles are not difficult to find.

Essentially, solid progress has effectively been made in addressing coverage deficiencies. Huawei's most recent micro base stations have been used in the Italian test network. CPE was used with high antenna acquire, which altogether extended the coverage level. Given that industry-standard networks and terminals are used, the downloadable speed is expanded from 26 to 79 to more than 1 GBS for each network. It shows that the progress is truly exceptional.

The sub-6 GHz spectrum, basically C-band, allows performance to be balanced between large transmission and great coverage. These are the advantages of the low band and mmWave resources. On a typical network with a bandwidth capacity of 100 MHz, it's anything but a most extreme limit of 5 GPS, and when combined with an external CPE, the coverage level stretches out up to 5 km. Given this level of comprehensive interest in coverage, capacity, and spectrum accessibility, C-Band is the most broadly used spectrum among 5G commercial networks in metropolitan, urban, and rural areas around the world.

Significant Challenges for FWA Trading

Albeit 5G FWA has been launched commercially across more than 30 corporate networks, the client scale is still small. High CPE prices are a significant boundary to economic advantages. Internal coverage because of the use of high bandwidth is as yet a significant obstruction to accomplishing service deployment.

The 5G spectrum relies more upon higher bands than 3G and 4G, for instance, C band and even mmWave, which prompts poor coverage and diffraction. This is anything but a complicated solution, as outdoor CPEs can be used to build the coverage radius multiple times while guaranteeing better coverage over the low bandwidth capacity of 3G and 4G. Even though outside CPEs are economically accessible, the dimensions are as yet inadmissible and should be additionally diminished to work on the installation.

Given the high CPE prices, as the number of 5G chipsets increases on the market, CPE products will turn out to be more diverse. CPE prices have fallen below $ 150 on average in the mid of 2020.

Simultaneously, on February 26, 2019, after seven days, China Unicom declared the arrival of the first 5G processor that uses the Unisoc module. This product supports NSA/SA modes and VoNR services. With an extended price under 1000 CNY in H2, 2019 will be launched in China.

The fast development of the worldwide 5G industry conquers all challenges and hindrances and promotes the development of the 5G FWA scale around the world. FWA is a creative cross-industry product that is required to provide better broadband and ICT services to homes and organizations in a financially savvy and productive way, assisting with bringing technological advantages to the entire community.

Neomi Rao is the Content Insights Manager at a Skills and Certification Knowledge Center FieldEngineer - Globally recognized Remote Job Platform for Engineers.