This presentation was given at the IP Gala, Cairo on 22 April 2019, an event sponsored by Huawei. It looks at the market context for the implementation of 5G, the kinds of business cases that might support it and strategic network decisions that have to be made.

1. IP Gala,Cairo
Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act
www.balancingact-africa.com

2. What consumers are looking to
do in the next five years?
 App store purchases will exceed US$122 bn in 2019 (source:
AppAnnie)
 Range of predictions that there will be increases in mobile
screen time, falls in watching traditional TV
 Video: Higher levels of content, UGC/social content and
more video advertising
 Mobile gaming revenues will be 60% of total gaming
revenues (source: AppAnnie)
 Live streaming of events
 Cloud apps, taking burden away from local device
 4G: 21%; 3G: 48% (Source: GSMA)

3. 5G Adoption

4. What corporate customers are
looking to do in the next five
years?
 Wanting faster speeds and more reliability to run all
applications.
 Cloud computing – Distributed applications use and remote
working
 Using IoT for smart ecosystems – Checking the status of key
machinery, goods in transit, etc
 Video and teleconferencing technology – Better apps that will
reduce airline costs
 Network slicing – Possible for a business to practically own
their own 5G network to control smart ecosystems and
overall comms costs

5. Industry transition from analog to digital -
where it has happened and where it will
happen next?
 Going IP in different parts of the network – International -> national –
local – consumer
 Long history of IP calling at international level (from peer-to-peer like
Skype or things like MPLS)
 Increasing use of IP over fibre at national and local levels
 4G implementation has ramped up fibre capacity implementation to
BTS level
 Consumer: India by end 2017, 218 million 4G handsets, of which 74%
are VoLTE enabled. Slower elsewhere…
 Virtualised services like subscriber data and billing
 BUT MNO networks are a patchwork of: different vendor equipment,
different analog and digital standards, etc
 Digital/Analog/digital paths slow potential speeds and increase
operating errors Cisco:” Multiplicity of protocols and states hinder
network economics” SRV6 promises ultra low latency
 Comcast using SRV6 for video transport
 All services using one protocol, multiple services on same network

6. What does the network need to
be?
Faster – Every prediction - whether for
consumer or business – shows people
wanting better speeds.
More reliable - easier to spot and fix faults
Simpler – Less different standards, more
universal treatment of IP traffic flows
More secure for both corporate and
consumers

7. The MENA Context - 5G take-up
and launches to 2025

8. How fast in MENA?

9. How fast by country launches?
* What will happen in Egypt?

10. Strategic network choices:
standalone 5G vs Hybrid/NSA
networks
 Non-standalone (NSA) or hybrid networks depend upon
using 4G network capabilities for things like talking to cell
towers.
 MNOs have tended to consider NSA because of desire to
lower short-term risks and perceived costs of standalone
 Obviously full advantages of 5G are not available without
standalone. Latter will support future use cases of 5G but
NSA networks will not.
 Although the trend in adoption is towards NSA at the
moment, long-term everyone will need to go standalone later
on

11. Clarifying 5G uses
 High speed broadband, including delivering to the local level
potentially cheaper than fibre. Speed gains likely to be
constrained by NSA networks. Broadband everywhere.
 5G technologies such as 5G New Radio (NR) — combined
with technologies such as cloud, software-defined networking
(SDN), and network slicing — will be key enablers for the
smart everything (eg factory, city health) of the future.
 Transport and automated vehicles: Not just self-driving cars
but a more connected transport ecosystem. 5G standard will
connect vehicles with surroundings, other drivers, and
infrastructure.
 IoT: Critical control of remote devices.

12. Questions to answer before
making a business case
What are your assumptions about increased data
use over the next five years? How fast will it
increase?
Do you need additional revenues? Will the 5G
business case services be relevant to your local
circumstances?
If not now, when will you make the transition to
standalone networks?
How do your sunk costs compare to the
efficiencies that standalone might deliver?
If you decide to go NSA, how will you compete with
a standalone operator?