BARCELONA: 2015 Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona from March 2-5, was the post-4G mobile-communications technology exhibition, a field that is expected to prevail on the global market in several years.
The new technology is expected to be a big hit in places such as China, Japan, South Korea, and North America, where network capacity is expected to get congested due to more and more internet usage in the future, according to Sina’s tech news portal.
Post-4G technology consists of two versions, the 4.5G which refers to deployment of LTE system on a 5GHz spectrum and the other semi- or pre-5G featuring outright application of some 5G technology and using a network framework, such as Massive MIMO and UDN (ultra-dense network).
Sina’s tech news portal said that the semi-5G can double the capacity of existing 4G terminals and is expected to be met with an even warmer market reception than LTE-A technology, the current upgrade of 4G LTE technology.
China Mobile, which displayed a semi-5G system at its booth during the 2015 MWC, is reportedly scheduled to roll out semi-5G service in the second half this year. The system embraces the usage of ZTE equipment, which when debuted last November, was one step ahead of Huawei, the world’s largest telecom-equipment supplier.
Most European firms, such as Ericsson, embrace LTE-A technology.
Industry insiders said that post-4G technology will come with enormous business opportunity. GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) predicts that mobile-communications carriers worldwide will sink US$1.7 trillion in upgrading existing 4G networks during 2014-2020, double investment of US$878 billion in 3G network during 2009-2013.
