ChannelVision Magazine

Edge Cloud to amplify the power of simple drones to match or exceed the capabilities of complex drones, which are much more expensive. This proof of concept demonstration showed that as intelligence and pro- cessing are moved to the 5G core and the very edge of the network, existing device constraints will be lifted, enabling advanced applica- tions with low-cost devices – with big benefits for industrial control and intelligent transport systems. AT&T also is focused on EMBB in its trials so far, but Dave Wolter, assistant vice president of Radio Technology & Architecture at AT&T, said that “machine-type communica- tions will be a huge use case some- day.” He added, “We’ve always had too much latency in the network to support real-time machine commu- nications and artificial intelligence- driven analysis in the past. There could be some very interesting de- ployments around that.” A Different Business Model For all the innovation, these de- ployments come with a caveat: IoT devices don’t offer the same reve- nue profile or customer behavior as a traditional mobile subscriber (of course) – if a provider is serving a connected sensor, the ARPU might only be 50 cents per month. That ARPU changes the dynamic for the supply chain, network cov- erage, customer care, repair and billing and truck rolls. One customer care call can wipe out all of the rev- enue, let alone profits, coming from that network for the entire year. So, operationally, these plans would need to be structured differently. Further raising questions is the movement to allow devices to authenticate to the 5G core that aren’t SIM-based. If this makes it into the final specification, it would mean that carriers could natively authenticate different kinds of off- the-shelf devices – those that typi- cally use Wi-Fi for instance. This would lead to a much richer set of devices, billions of them, with dif- ferent authentication mechanisms. That opens the door to great inno- vation, but also the need for new management approaches. Whether it comes to business models or the technology itself, car- rier trials are actively exploring the many questions that surround 5G today, and are leading to a better- defined state of play for the market as the months march on. “We expect there to be some tidy and messy conclusions to initial 5G trials,” said Dan Hays, principal with PwC’s Strategy&. “They are re- fining the technology approach and testing the viability of the business model for 5G services. Whether those will be more of the same or serving a diversity of use cases is still an open question – but they’re getting closer to answering it.” o Mobile & Wireless netcarrier ™ telecom Connect, Collaborate, Communicate Contact your Channel Manager for more details! 855-nCloud4 • sales@netcarrier.com • AI Voice Command • SMS from DID • Proprietary Mobile App • Voicemail Transcription • and many more... "New UCaaS Features Same Great Support!" - uKee 35 January - February, 2018 | Channel Vision