Unicom Li Han: The prosperity of 5G lies in the consumer Internet

The freezing of the 5G R17 standard has pushed 5G to a climax again. The industry generally believes that 5G standard capabilities are continuously improving, 5G network features and network capabilities are continuously improving, services are gradually becoming more refined, and 5G industry applications are showing a thriving state.

However, some experts have different attitudes. According to Li Han, general manager of Unicom Wo Music Culture Co., Ltd., the prosperity of 5G applications must start from the consumer Internet, not the industrial Internet.

The initial vision of 5G has not yet been realized, and the industry chain needs to work together to explore

"The vision troika (eMBB/uRLLC/mMTC) in the early stage of 5G, only eMBB is getting better, and uRLLC and mMTC are still far away." Li Han believes that the result is not that the industry chain does not work hard, but that network standards are too idealized or Some network manufacturers are selfish and independent, and this problem is expected to remain difficult to solve.

Previously, most people believed that the dividend of consumer Internet was gradually fading, and the continuous development of information technology represented by 5G, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc. will promote the future industrial Internet and industrial Internet will play a more important role, thereby promoting the economy Upgrade. However, after three years of commercial development, people gradually discovered that it is not easy for 5G to empower the industrial Internet.

In this regard, Li Han emphasized that the communication standard is released every two years, and the determination of the version is not the beginning of the prosperity of the industry. The general rule will have to wait for another two years to see the dawn. He believes that the essence of 5G is the upgrade of the entire industry and the upgrade of the entire business form. The first stage of 5G application development is eMBB, which is the upgrade of consumer Internet. From the perspective of China's consumption power, the needs of industries and users are extremely strong. From the information highway in the 1990s, to the popularization of home broadband, optical fiber, 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, there is one thing in common, that is, speed The faster, the faster the application innovation, the faster the application innovation, the higher the demand will be.

Therefore, the upgrade of the consumer Internet will make the traffic enter the 3.0 stage, realize the upgrade of digital entertainment, personal application upgrade, home customer upgrade, and the comprehensive 5Gization of consumer terminals. After that, 5G applications will enter the second stage of industrialization of consumer Internet, that is, 5G applications will also emerge as the times require during the process of digital transformation and upgrading of enterprises.

It can be seen that 5G will accelerate the innovation of various formats, and the growth of the industrial chain is also accelerating, but it is not 5G that really changes society, but the things behind 5G, such as AI, ultra-high-definition and other technologies. In Li Han's view, the future 5G industrial Internet should still play the leading role in the three basic elements of broadband networking, industry-specific networks, and edge computing, while conceptual uRLLC and mMTC are difficult to achieve.

As a key milestone, the R17 standard not only brings more enhancements and expansion features to multiple basic technologies of the 5G system, such as industrial IoT enhancements, positioning enhancements, V2X enhancements, terminal energy saving, coverage enhancements, and extended direct-connect communication functions , non-terrestrial communications, etc., and through the introduction of RedCap, the application scope of 5G has been expanded, and it has been popularized to more IoT scenarios, paving the way for the arrival of an intelligent world where everything is connected.

It is true that these enhanced performances are good, but when they will be popularized and empowered for the industry is the real concern of enterprises. "From the content of R17, it is still far from the industry chain. It needs to be discussed whether the priority of business model or network technology standards. In particular, the disintegration of IoT standards and the respective expressions of V2X, it is basically foreseeable that it will still be difficult to reach unity in the next few years." Li Han revealed that the uncertainty of the ROE invested in the operator's network will also affect the process. In addition to private networks and edge computing, large-scale "unified IoT" is still a long way off.

The R18 standard brings a new "troika", focusing on 5G+AI/XR

At the same time as the R17 standard was frozen, 3GPP also started the standard formulation work for R18. The R18 version of the 5G standard starts the second half of the 5G journey of the Internet of Things, improving 5G capabilities in an all-round way, including enhancing mobile broadband, eMBB, and enhancing the new service experience of XR, enhancing the uplink rate and positioning capabilities in the industry, and introducing artificial intelligence. In wireless technology, the integration of AI technology and communication perception is introduced, which helps to further improve communication performance and network performance, and opens up new business application scenarios.

Regarding the R18 standard, Li Han said with great anticipation: "The 5G Adcanced of the R18 standard brings a new 'troika' - UCBC/RTBC/HCS, which is essentially the integration of two-way ultra-clear, XR, AI and communication. The application layer feeds back 5G, and it is expected that the technological evolution maturity of UHD/XR/AI will be faster than 5G.”

However, Li Han is worried about the "time difference" between the formulation of the standard and the development of the industry. When the R18 standard is finalized, it is expected that the defined ultra-high-definition/XR/AI content will fall behind the industry level again. If 5G is focused on this field at the beginning, the industry chain will be more abundant, and the application layer and the network layer will complement each other, maybe today's 5G will be another situation.

But what is gratifying is that 5G personal networks have already benefited the public, AI/XR technology is getting better, and the integration and innovation of 5G+AI+XR will be in a state of blooming. China Unicom took the lead in seeing the cultural and creative industry opportunities of 5G+4K/8K/AI, and took advantage of the situation to establish Unicom Wo Music Culture Co., Ltd., dedicated to the integrated operation of products, operations and services in the fields of music and new cultural and creative industries.

Li Han emphasized that we cannot talk about business in terms of technology, nor can we talk about technology in terms of vision. To be realistic, based on broadband network + slice private network + computing power network, AI + XR + image as application, cloud network + cloud intelligence + cloud image + cloud edge + cloud five-in-one, can achieve the 5G application ecology.

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Author : Mei Yaxin

Editor in charge/Layout: Shen Hsinchu

Review: Shen Qing

Producer: Liu Qicheng

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