Orange and Bouygues Telecom

to start 5G pilots in France

POLICY

To allow frequency allocations in the 3.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands French regulator Arcep has been upgrading 2.5- 2.6 GHz professional mobile radio (PMR) networks and using a portion of 3.5 GHz band frequencies to upgrade wireless local loop (WLL) networks. “Arcep wants to allow any players that so request to be able to conduct 5G trials rapidly”

Roland Toper

CEO AND FOUNDER SETICS

After inviting applications in January, Arcep has issued the first frequency authorisations to develop 5G pilots in the 3.5 GHz band (3400 - 3800 MHz). Orange has been granted permission to use a portion of spectrum in Lille and Douai during a twelve-month period. The operator will be carrying out end-to-end 5G testing between mid-2018 and mid-2019. This autumn, Orange will also be setting up a test network to research 5G connectivity for autonomous vehicles, working with Ericsson. Together with partners Samsung and Cisco, Orange will also be testing 5G-based fixed access in Romania in the second half of 2018.

Arcep also issued a temporary spectrum license to Bouygues Telecom for 5G pilots, which applies to Bordeaux, Lyon and Villeurbanne. This authorisation expires in September 2020 and covers three planned technical tests in the Bordeaux metropolitan area. “5G promises higher throughput and better latency, so we want to test these technologies to understand how they work,” says Jean-Paul Arzel, Network Director at Bouygues Telecom.

Arcep has also granted use of the 3.5 GHz band in the French overseas territory of St. Barthelemy-St. Martin, so that operators may offer LTE connectivity in areas where fixed broadband services have been damaged by hurricane Irma.

KEY POINTS REGARDING 5G AND FTTH

Let’s describe 21st century communication networks according to a 3-layer model:

Physical: copper, fibre optics, radio spectrum, antenna masts…
Equipment and services: routers, SDN, OLT, ONT, CPE, IP, 4G, 5G, IoT, M2M…
Applications: voice, video, health, connected cars, robotics…

5G technology is located in the Equipment layer, fibre is situated in the Physical layer.

In a draft document, the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) stated that in order to qualify as 5G, a network cell must deliver a minimum peak data rate for downloads of 21GB/sec and an uplink peak data rate of 10GB/sec. Maximum latency is set at 4ms. 5G wireless telecom will be using upper part of the spectrum. Today this is 3.5 GHz (pilot), tomorrow it is expected to be 26 GHz, 28 GHz and above 40 GHz. The higher the frequency, the shorter the range; therefore, 5G roll-out requires far more antennas than 4G roll-out. Typically 5G needs four times as many stations as 4G - about 80 000 antennas for each operator in France.

5G deals with data and offers very high performance, therefore a fibre backhaul is mandatory. 5G wireless needs fibre, and a lot of it! Without fibre, there is no 5G. The French Plan THD will be covering the whole territory in 2022 and will provide fibre to connect the 5G stations. Let us not forget that 5G pilot networks will be tested in 2019, 5G rollout will begin in the large cities in 2020 and France will be covered with 5G between 2025 and 2030. In the next decade, 5G wireless will provide dramatically improved services to consumers and enterprises, thanks to fibre links.

Roland Toper, CEO and founder Setics