GlobalData Technology
5 min read
As one of the first telcos in the world to deploy 5G-Advanced networks, China Mobile Shanghai is blazing a trail in deciding where to upgrade and how to operate its new network to serve its VIP users and value-added service tiers.
Verdict has previously laid out how China Mobile Shanghai designed its services to encourage multiple tiers of upgraded users. The story of how China Mobile rolled out its new network while monetising their network as well, is equally as useful to other telcos starting to plan for their own 5G-Advanced networks.
Since 5G nomenclature can be confusing, a brief review: the majority of 5G networks today are 5G-Non-standalone (5G-NSA), which means that they run 5G New Radio base stations, but are controlled by a 4G/LTE core network.
The non-standalone standard was designed to get the higher-capacity 5G radio network into the world quickly, but does not support 5G network slicing. 5G-NSA is therefore a kind of “4G 2.0” and has led to some of the popular dissatisfaction with 5G networks as “more of the same” since it does not support any dramatically new services.
5G-Standalone (5G-SA) marries 5G New Radio with a 5G core network and can therefore support more finely differentiated quality of experience. Via network slicing, it can allocate network resources on a deterministic basis (meaning that the performance is guaranteed), not just best-effort. Roughly a third of global communications service providers (CSPs) are operating 5G-SA networks, but this “mature 5G” level is already widely deployed in China.
5G-Advanced (5G-A) is a new mid-cycle upgrade analogous to 4G’s LTE-Advanced. It introduces features that improve connection quality, reliability, and ease of management. It can support higher levels of service performance, but the big improvement is in the reliability of that performance.
5G-A is for power users that are willing to pay for guaranteed, tailored network experience: not only premium consumers, but IoT customers, emergency services, and so on. China Mobile selected the Shanghai region to work out 5G-A service design and marketing, but also to iron out technical issues regarding coverage and operations.
China Mobile has established multiple tiers of 5G-A service plans: not only the top, “platinum” tier, but a gold tier that receives network performance that is not as outstanding as the platinum group, but still better than subscribers to ordinary 5G plans.
5G-A’s ability to provide precisely guaranteed network performance with not only a lower limit (faster than x) but an upper limit (no faster than y) allows for multiple such service tiers. Another benefit of this deterministic experience is that network resources can be released for others to use when not required by the premium tiers.
