Summary. The 5G radio is incidental to the
business goal of replacing the Internet with a 1970’s vintage
one and it doomed to fail just like IMS killed Lucent
The longer version is a bit long because
this is old territory and I’ve been writing about this for
years and feel a duty to protect the Internet against those
who see it as an existential threat.
Alas, the video doesn’t get the joke.
Sure there is an interesting radio
technology with severe limits on the range. But you can get
similar technology with Wi-Fi 6 and without giving total
control cellular networks. Too bad researchers have sold their
reputation so they could get funding for engineering those
radios by calling them 5G and thus, implicitly, endorsing the
larger business strategy of 5G.
T-Mobile doesn’t even bother with the new
radios because for them, and the telcos, 5G is really about
returning to the intelligent network and clawing value back
from the apps and making sure every device is tethered and
generating billable events. It is the face of anti-neutrality
in which the telcos are selling priority by claiming some bits
are special and require that they take capacity away from the
commons and sell it to the highest bidder.
And they have science on their side because
we can prove beyond any doubt that voice traffic needs a
special network. Oops, VoIP happened, uh oh. (OK, they
actually new packets would destroy the value of their network
which is why they tried to get into cable TV). LTE wasn’t
supposed to support voice but VoIP showed how.
If you look at all the use cases they are
stories written by marketers. No, remote VR isn’t a crisis and
telesurgery is murder. What we do need is telemedicine which
works fine with Skype, (sorry, Zoom) and needs more Wi-Fi and
less paywalls. We are supposed to make all our devices
dependent upon 5G radios which we don’t control because we
can’t be trusted managing our own connectivity. All the cars
having hypercomplex radio conversations to replace looking at
the window? Yeah, have fun making that all work.
In 2004 Lucent said we need IMS (Internet
Multimedia Subsystem) because can’t do video without a control
plane. Then one day the jig was up, Lucent dived 90% in value
and they pieces were bought up by a legacy Telco (Alcatel).
The real benefit to 5G is in making the
network more valuable and more revenue for the chip companies.
It is not in adding value to the users – just the opposite.
And it doesn’t so anything we can’t do now better by
innovating.
FYI for your listening pleasure
Here is a video on WIFI during
closed Libraries by Giganet
Here is the link to the main
page
FYI
We have created this page on Covid 19 and Teaching
resources
I will create a padlet page with
5 G resource articles
Curator
for Internet Governance Hub
Blog
HI Siva
I agree that we need to
separate the 5G hype from reality, impartial
analysis and a real cost analysis . I see this
typical with TVWS as the best solution since
sliced bread( or roti) but none of this is
written in plain english or other .
g
Curator
for Internet Governance
Hub Blog
Thank you Glenn and
Leandro. The pad lists some important points.
Leadndro's paper is a useful research paper.
There have been some presentations in IGF and
other fora where 5G policy issues were
explained clearly. Pointers to some of those
resources, even webpages / blogs might be
helpful, not only to respond to this list
participant, but in general to share with
those who may not have a technical background.
In response to the
question, the digitized books on Community
Network would also help in providing a fair
perspective.
I couldn't attend the session, but I
participated in a joint paper some time
ago about the 5G hype. Metaphorically and
simplifying, if we are talking about
thirst and lack of water, 5g is mainly a
new type of drink cocktail, a new flavor
to attract sophisticated consumers, as
long as you live in profitable places for
the service and you can pay for it.
Renewal of communications equipment and
devices is a business opportunity for
manufacturers mainly, but not just the
best "water" to the unconnected, rural,
... (non premium clients), even a problem
as investment from operators gets first
pushed by the trend towards satisfying
high paying urban customers and not to
spread connectivity to low pay
social/universal inclusion customers, and
definitely not network co-owners as in
CNs.
https://people.ac.upc.edu/leandro/pubs/5G.pdf
Leandro.
On 23/04/2020 15:17,
sivasubramanian muthusamy wrote:
Siva
–
APC
just did a great session on
5G. I think the meet-up was
recorded.
There
rae a lot of issues related to
5G….
I
think one thing that is key –
we need to connect in a tech
neutral way. By focusing just
on 5G, we divert attention
away from immediate
complimentary solutions – from
3G to 4G to Community Networks
and the need for more IXPs.
I
also am curious about the
CAPEX/OPEX per kilometer based
on population and average
income related to 5G….
I will locate
the video archive of the APC
session on 5G and share it; The
summary information you provided
is succinct, helps some of us who
are well familiar with the issues
and the governance process
understand the important points.
However, the request (in the list
that was set up following the
'more' Internet Chennai Virtual
event wherein you led a session on
Community Networks) happens to be
from academia, from someone who
might not be familiar with the
background. What may be more
helpful is to put together a list
of links / documents /
presentations that are more like
"what is 5G - seeing through the
hype" kind of title, which gives
information both at a basic level,
and at the same time gets into
nuances such as '5G is a bundle of
technologies otherwise available
in collectable parts in open
source', '5G hype is about
lobbying to project this as a
unique breakthrough that qualifies
for all the world's spectrum'
etc..
When I post the
resources in response to the query
titled "Request for resources on
5G aka magic dust" I would not
resist the temptation to quote
Andrew Sullivan who said during
the Chennai Roundtable "5G is
like the new magic technology,
right ? It is a floor wax, and
it is also a dessert topping. It
will wash your
clothes and make your dinner. A
lot of the time, when you hear
those kinds of claims about any
given technology, for the
internet, or really for anything
else, you' re going to be
disappointed."
Best,
Jane
A
certain participant of an
Internet Society India
Chennai Chapter special
mailing list seeking
pointers:
to
learn more about 5G's
potential
implications for
democracy and human
rights. (Very broad...
I know). I wonder if
anyone on this list
has any resources to
share on architecture
or deployment, for
instance:
-
a good high level
overview of
technical/architectural
elements,
-
further information
about potential
resource conflicts in
relation to
4g/6g/fiber, etc.,
-
risks around
proprietary software,
etc.
Links,
key words, directions
towards initiatives or
organizations to look
at — anything would be
a huge help!
Bringing that
question to
this list to
seek help in
answering that
question.
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http://people.ac.upc.edu/leandro
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