5G WARS: The Race for Gigabit Internet

The race is on!

The race started some years ago, when Google upped the ante back in 2012 and launched Google Fiber.  This ignited the gigabit fever in the US market.

Now, 6 years later, many providers (including Google Fiber) have recognized that providing gigabit service via wireline technologies (Fiber, Copper and Coax) is not a easy feat.  Most have scaled back or halted their deployments. 

5G to the rescue

As previously discussed, 5G technology is capable of delivering fixed and mobile Internet at speeds of 1000 Mbps and more.  Hence why Gigabit Wireless have been acknowledged as the most cost effective way to deliver gigabit Internet to end users.

But what really is Gigabit Wireless? Many define Gigabit Wireless  as any technology capable of delivering up to 1000 mbps Internet access to a consumer via any wireless technology. Also, this definition does not differentiate between fixed access (home and businesses) and mobile access (phones, hotspots).

Having said that, how can a service provider deliver Gigabit speeds over a wireless medium? Currently, mobile operators are testing fixed wireless technologies in various band to achieve this feat.  A lot of focus is being put on millimeter wave technologies in the 28  and 38 GHz bands.  New companies like Starry and Phazr have prototype trials with several operators like ATT and Verizon. Other operators are focusing their efforts in microwave  upper bands like 60 GHz using systems from industry veterans like Siklu and newcomers like Facebook. 

Facebook's Terragraph node in San Jose CA

Most of these trials and deployments are being labeled as 5G, but is 5G equal to Gigabit Wireless and vice versa? As of today, we can agree that they are equal, as both pursue the same goal of delivering Internet at 1000 mbps speeds in both fixed and mobile scenarios.

Wireline rebounds

Although the wireline industry has been stagnant for some years, new technologies capable of achieving gigabit speeds and more have been recently deployed and validated.  This comeback, backed with DOCSIS 3.x and G.FAST technologies, shines  a light of 

retaliation to the wireless industry and shows that the wireline technologies are fighting to keep  their place in the race for Internet access.  

As more operators implement these technologies, more turf will be held by the wireline technologies against the posible 5G onslaught.

Can Wireline technologies stop the incoming 5G wave? That remains to been seen, but I would venture to say that the true winner of this war would be:

HYBRID NETWORKS

I believe that the true winner of this technology confrontation would be the concept of Hybrid Networks, the mix of both wireless and wireline.  When coupled together, fiber and wireless technologies can become the true solution to scalable, fast deployable networks that can serve 1 Gbps and above speeds to the end user. A fiber networks gives you the scalability and bandwidth capacities for future growth, and the wireless networks give you the speed and the flexibility to reach the end users.

Those operators who leverage the strengths of both technologies to complement each other and provide access to the end user in the most fast and cost-effective way, would be the true winners of the 5G WARS.

Follow me on social media for more information on this and other related topics: 

Gino Villarini: Twitter, Instagram

My recent visit to Facebook for the TIP Summit and its Relevance

Early this year, during the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Facebook announced the creation of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP).  TIP is an engineering focused initiative led by Facebook to disrupt the telecommunications industry with open source software and hardware.  The idea is to bring together operators, manufacturers and other industry members in a joint effort to possibly standardize much of the telecom industry under the open software ideals.

Facebook has been involved in the connectivity arena for quite a while.  From Project Aquila, which pursues the idea of beaming Internet from a high flying wing drone to the more recent Terragraph Project which objective is to provide Wireless Gigabit in urban environments.  Facebook spear heading the TIP provides the needed momentum in the industry tho think outside the box and both provide connectivity to the unconnected as well as improve connectivity to the connected.

Quickly acknowledging the need for such an initiative, we decided to join the effort as a Operator Member.  Thus since March 2016 AeroNet is part of the TIP initiative.  Later during summer the first TIP Summit was announced to be held at Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley during November.  I quickly booked my flight  and was exited about this new opportunity.

Reaching the Facebook campus, I have to say that I felt somewhat overwhelmed by what Facebook represents and the people behind the TIP project.  Being a small provider among the big players could be somewhat intimidating.  Among the presents were Deutsche Telekom's (Tmobile parent company) CTO Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, SK Telecom (Biggest South Korea Telecom Company) CTO Alex Jinsung Choi and Facebook VP of Infrastructure Jay Parikh.

Some highlights of the summit where the announcement of the Voyager platform, a 1U 100G and DWDM switch with SDN capabilities which purpose is to lower the cost of fiber deployments.

Jay Parikh presenting the Voyager 100G Switch

Another highlight of the summit was the Open Cellular, a project that is currently developing a low cost Software Defined Base Station intended for 4G, LTE, 5G deployments. 

Jay Parikh presenting Open Cellular

Although my main objective for the summit was to learn more about Project Terragraph and millimeter multipoint technologies, not much was discussed about this topic because it is still in "stealth mode" I do was able to snaps some pictures of the Terragraph equipment being tested in the Facebook campus.

TIP Lab @ Facebook

After two days at Facebook Hq I left with much more excitement as I was able to see first hand the stages of development of the projects and what the future holds for worldwide connectivity! 

View of Hacker Way @ Facebook HQ

Google Fiber is stopping, Why it's great news!

Recently the broadband industry and consumers have been shocked by the news that Google Fiber its halting all new deployments of its fiber optic network in the cities that were recently announced as the next fiber hubs: 

Chicago, Dallas, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Jose and Tampa are out of the Google Fiber plans for the moment. 

Some consumers are feeling disappointed as their broadband dreams are vanishing away.  And if you are on the outside of the industry, the recent Google announcement might feel like a stab in the back from the big corp with tons of cash. 

But if you look closely, and have some industry information; these are not bad news at all.  Back in June, Google announced the acquisition of Webpass, an ISP with operations in several markets in the US including San Francisco, Miami, Boston, Chicago among others.  What its special about Webpass is that they are a Wireless ISP that focuses in serving Multi Dwelling Units (MDUS) with high capacity fixed wireless access.  Webpass services both the residential and commercial segments with speeds up to 500 Mbps. 

Since the closing of the Webpass acquisition back in October, the industry has been rumoring that Google was favoring wireless as a access medium over fiber, and it seems that with the Webpass integration, wireless technology knowledge have moved to Google higher levels and the decision was made. 

Google halting all new fiber deployments comes as no surprise to me and its a validation of our business model.   Fiber its expensive and slow to deploy;  Wireless technologies  are maturing at a fast pace and its time has come to shine bright.  Millimeter wave technology (equipment that operates higher than 30 GHz) is posing as a the new contender for fiber-like wireless access and will be able to be deployed faster and less costly that fiber to the home. 

Google is not the only company looking at fixed wireless as an alternate access medium, Facebook is heavily invested in several projects including TIP and Terragraph. Verizon and AT&T both are currently running trials of the technology (Verizon, AT&T) and even Amazon has announced that it too whats a piece of the action. 

Facebook Terragraph access site concept

So to all those crying foul at Google Fiber, I say; wait.  Good news will follow.  Be it from Google Fiber or other alternatives broadband providers that are already deploying ultra fast broadband access using microwave technologies.  Google moving to wireless, brings clout to the WISPs industry, more importantly; investment and faster development of new technologies and products.

Stay Tuned! and GoFaster!