Slow walk to 5G roll-out - SMA getting ready to deploy spectrum, but telecoms not ready to invest
Published:Wednesday | January 27, 2021 | 4:13 AM
Jamaica’s big telecommunications companies aren’t prioritising rapid roll-outs of 5th generation, or 5G, mobile technology, even though radio frequencies for the service are already earmarked by the agency in charge of distributing spectrum.
In its purest form, 5G technology can match the speed of fixed line broadband on mobile devices. Consumers would see the difference when streaming ultra high definition content on their phones or tablets. It is also expected to form the infrastructure on which to build data intensive applications, enabling driverless car technology to operate locally, for instance.
The technology started rolling out commercially in global metropoles in varying degrees in 2019, including the United States and China.
“While there is a lot of interest and benefit in 5G technology, several actions will first have to be completed, including stakeholder consultation and spectrum assignment,” said Kayon Mitchell, director of communications and stakeholder engagement at Flow Jamaica, in response to Financial Gleaner queries on that company’s plans for 5G roll-out.
Flow will prioritise investments in broadband technology to bolster home Internet speeds through the current technology and already offers 4G on its mobile network.
Digicel Group told the Financial Gleaner that it will continue to watch the space as the technology is capital intensive, and will be costly to deploy. Global investment in 5G was reportedly estimated to hit US$2.7 trillion in 2020 with US$1 trillion on telecom buildout and US$1.7 trillion on hardware and the Internet of things such as 5G phones. It’s yet to be made clear how much the telecoms would have to invest to deploy 5G in Jamaica, but they expect it will be a tidy sum.
“For the record, 5G is a very expensive technology to roll out and further requires users to have 5G-enabled handsets which likewise currently come at a very high price point,” said Antonia Graham, head of group communications at Digicel Group, in response to Financial Gleaner queries. There are no current plans to introduce 5G in the Caribbean, said Graham, instead, “Digicel’s focus for 2021” is continued roll-out of its LTE services.
Digicel brands its 4th generation technology as LTE. Last year, Digicel Chairman Denis O’Brien said during a virtual forum that 5G would only make sense in the urban areas of Kingston & St Andrew, as it holds highest population concentration, but called for more stakeholder discussions prior to any decision on its roll-out.
Most of the world has assigned high frequency bands – in ranges of 24.25 to 27.5 GHz; 37 to 43.5 GHz; 47.2 to 48.2 GHz; and 66 to 71 GHz – for deployment of 5G technology. However, each geographic region can tweak the bands to fit their circumstances.
“In Region 2 where Jamaica is located, in addition to the globally harmonised bands, the 47.2 to 48.2 GHz is also allocated for 5G. The 45.5-47 GHz is not allocated for 5G in Region 2,” said Jamaica’s Spectrum Management Authority, SMA, in its Proposed Spectrum Policy issued in November 2020.
The SMA, which regulates Jamaica’s use of radio frequencies, said that the authority must be ready to deploy bandwidth for 5G as it will at some stage play a critical role in Jamaica’s economy.
“These bands were [earmarked] for 5G technology and are currently not being used by any of our mobile network operators. Perhaps the time is right for Jamaica to establish national committees to begin looking at local spectrum needs for 5G and the practical ways in which Spectrum may be of benefit to the Jamaican economy,” said SMA Managing Director Dr Maria Myers-Hamilton in a statement published in the agency’s annual report.
The spectrum authority said 5G is expected to increase performance of many current applications such as virtual reality or VR, smart city and augmented reality or AR applications, facilitate innovations industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, and logistics, and strengthen e-health, telemedicine, tele-surgery, and such services.
The SMA plans to do training for 5G, IoT or Internet of things, and other emerging technologies this year; as well as explore what tools are required to adequately monitor 5G for regulatory purposes.