Into 2017, more and more operators worldwide announced the deployment of Gigabit LTE network. In the United States, for example, in the first week of January, AT&T and T-Mobile announced plans to deploy more high-speed 4.5G technology in 2017. And their competitors Sprint has promised in December last year, will launch a Gigabit service in 2017.

There is better news in this regard, the Russian operator MTS claimed to have opened the LTE-Advanced Pro network. At the same time, with the recent launch of NOKIA's 110 4.5G contract, it is not difficult to foresee the European operators will be in the next few weeks to join the competition to deploy 4.5G.

However, foreign experts have expressed their views, 4.5G is not only good for the deployment of a wide range, but also has a negative impact. High availability LTE Gigabit speeds will also increase 5G developers are pressure, 5G technology is the real game changing technology, and the wide deployment of Gigabit speed LTE may even affect the operators have started to deploy 5G strategy.

4.5G demand for fixed wireless broadband and mobile TV

4.5G is an upgrade, but not a new technology, it can be deployed relatively economically, using the existing 4G assets and spectrum resources, this is crucial, because of the need to deal with a large number of video traffic network operator, and the operator's income growth remains elusive. Including last year's 3GPP version of R13, LTE-Advanced Pro can use technologies such as carrier aggregation and MIMO to improve capacity. And in addition to such a demand for attractive operators, the need for equipment suppliers in 2016 after the second half of the year is also a good news.

In developing markets, operators may be eager to use LTE-Advanced Pro as a solution to provide fixed wireless access in a poor community of wired broadband technologies. Many operators have successfully used LTE to provide customers with such a connection, and 4.5G will strengthen such products.

In more developed markets, 4.5G may have an impact on the operator's mobile TV strategy, which includes the United States AT&T and EE of the United kingdom. If you don't have Gigabit connectivity, it may be difficult to support higher quality video services.

However, foreign experts said the operator's business needs for 5G are also similar to the need for such a high speed connection. Unless 5G provides substantial improvements over 4.5G in the business environment, operators may be less eager to start it. The high availability of at least Gigabit LTE will affect the operator's pursuit of 5G metrics.

Operators are not eager to start 5G

Foreign media reports, the advisory company CEO Bengt Nordstr, m for the majority of operators want to deploy 5G as soon as possible doubt. He said that for the communications industry, bread and butter is still the development of 4G. And for the current industry generally claimed in 2020 will be commercial 5G, he believes that this depends on whether a mature 5G business model will appear, large-scale deployment of 5G will take place at least six years later.

Foreign experts believe that if there is no other factors, the success of the 4.5G will raise the standard of 5G. The success of 4.5G will not affect the long-term demand for 5G, however, it may affect the way 5G was first introduced. Opportunities for the pursuit of mobile broadband, operators may be more services into the vertical market, which is a priority for low latency operators, rather than high speed.

NOKIA mobile network president Sami Elhage in December last year, held a press conference in London, said: low latency is the biggest driver of 5G." Of course, the reason why NOKIA has such a statement, perhaps because of the wide area of the Internet of things may have greater sales opportunities than the mobile broadband from the vendor's point of view.

However, for operators, the business model is still uncertain. For 5G, there has been a tangible business case, is a fixed wireless access." Nordstr, m said, "5G on automatic driving vehicle intelligent building infrastructure and other areas although the story is very interesting, but from a commercial point of view is not necessarily a good."

At present, the global operators in addition to Verizon is to serve as the vanguard of 5G fixed wireless broadband, most operators have not given high priority 5G service, in fact, from the 5G standard can be commercial, there are a few years time, this is not surprising. However, look at how the operator's 5G strategy changes with the deployment of 4.5G, but also very fascinating.