Spectrum scarcity will inhibit the early deployment of 5G mobile networks in SA.
So said Dino Flore, vice-president of technology at Qualcomm, speaking during a question and answer session with the media at the company's Snapdragon Lab Tours & Qualcomm 5G day in San Diego, California.
Set to arrive within the next three years, 5G could account for as many as 1.4 billion connections by 2025, says the GSM Association. It points out that by then, 5G networks are likely to cover one-third of the world's population.
Flore was speaking about new spectrum opportunities for 5G, which, he said, will deliver new levels of capability and efficiency for enhanced mobile broadband.
Among the opportunities, he said, 5G will provide fibre-like speeds as well as reliable performance such as 100+ Mbps, even in challenging environments or at the cell edge.
He added that 5G provides lower latency and lower cost-per-bit - significantly lower than today's networks, to efficiently support cost-effective data plans.
"5G is a unifying connectivity fabric for future innovation," said Flore. "The path to 5G includes a strong LTE foundation."
However, when asked about 5G in SA, Flore said Qualcomm has a team in the country which is looking at the specifics of the market.
"As I understand, in the South African market there are some issues of their own. For example, the leading operators there are talking about scarce spectrum opportunities as opposed to many operators in Europe. 5G use cases are still to come to South Africa," he noted.
Also speaking at the event, Luigi Ardito, director of government affairs at Qualcomm, said key European member states are driving regulatory activities to accelerate 5G roll out.
According to Ardito, in Europe, there are intense regulatory activities for 3.4-3.8GHz and 26GHz currently taking place, with auctions expected in the 2018 to 2019 timeframe.
"If you don't have spectrum, you can't launch 5G," he noted.
In SA, ITWeb recently spoke to mobile network operators which revealed they have different ambitions in as far as 5G is concerned.
Vodacom, the country's biggest mobile network operator, signed a memorandum of understanding with Nokia in November last year to trial 5G to accelerate the launch of the new technology.
MTN and Ericsson announced the first 5G technology and applications trial in Africa, which is part of a 5G demonstration starting in the first quarter of 2018.
However, the telcos cautioned that more spectrum is needed in the country if 5G networks are to see light anytime soon.
Last year, the Independent Communications Authority of SA further pushed back a planned radio frequency spectrum auction process, with no future date set.
The allocation of new spectrum is much needed in the country, but proved a difficult process for the regulator, with efforts being held up by government's attempts to encourage greater competition to dominant players MTN and Vodacom.
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