5G will be a game changer. At least that’s what people at the companies and organizations that are working to move 5G forward keep telling us.
In addition to supporting game-changing applications like driverless cars, 5G will create change within networks themselves. That spans both cellular networks and the wireline facilities that help support them.
That was the word from Ciena’s Brian Lavallee during remarks at the recent SCTE ISBE Cable-Tec Expo. “Most of the 5G attention is around the radios, it’s the upcoming handsets,” Ciena’s senior director of portfolio marketing said, as reported by RCR Wireless. “Very little attention is being spent on the wireline network. But if you actually thinking about it, what is a mobile network? It’s a massive wireline network with radios and antenna hanging off the end of it.”
In an interview at this time last year, Lavallee noted: “Data received at the 5G radio located in a cell site won’t go anywhere without fiber. That’s why many large MNOs are buying large fiber footprints. They know that fiber and its geographic footprint will ultimately dictate the performance and commercial success of their 5G services and applications. 5G will need fiber, and lots of it.”
In announcing its 5G Home broadband internet service, which launched Oct. 1, Verizon (News - Alert) noted this service “is unique because it’s built on Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network.” And that network, Verizon added, combines “best-in-class” spectrum holdings including millimeter wave bands; a large number of small cells; and “end-to-end deep fiber resources throughout the network.”
And AT&T (News - Alert), which has millions of miles of fiber, notes: “The success of mobile 5G relies on a quality fiber connection to the wireless towers or small cells, which then translate the fiber connection into an ultra-fast wireless signal for customers. By putting fiber at the core of our wired and wireless networks, we’ve been laying the foundation for our 5G wireless connectivity.”
Edited by Maurice Nagle