DESPITE the lack of handsets in the market, and the uncertainty of its use cases in the Philippines, wireless services provider Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) has started deploying mobile 5G technology in its towers in Metro Manila.
Smart President Alfredo S. Panlilio said his group will focus its mobile 5G initiative first in the Philippine capital, and its neighboring cities, to essentially test the market and maximize its assets in the area. Manuel V. Pangilinan, who chairs the company, admitted that his group is still uncertain of the prospects of mobile 5G in the country, but it hopes to replicate the success of some East Asian telcos in the 5G sphere.
“We really don’t know, yet. But, [from] what we’ve seen in Japan and South Korea, it’s growing phenomenally. We see 5G taking off, maybe not as quickly as us because of the handsets issue, buildup issue. It’s still not clear to us what the use cases are,” he said.
However, Smart decided to move forward with its 5G initiative to future-proof its network.
“It’s build as you go,” Pangilinan said.
Smart is expected to launch the 5G service in the first half of 2020.
5G is seen as the next mobile technology that will revolutionize not only the way people communicate with each other, but also how devices talk to one another to create a smart environment.
It can enable a suite of industry applications, such as massive connectivity for thousands of devices, ultra-low latency, ultra-high reliability, distributed cloud computing, unified security and network slicing, among others.
Ultra-low latency is important for 5G use cases, such as video analytics plus industrial robotics control for manufacturing, remote crane/tractor operations in challenging/hazardous environments like mines and ports, as well as for real-time gaming with tactile sensors.
Early use cases seen are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), which is a school of thought that calls for the connectedness of devices via one medium—the mobile phone.
For mobile 5G, it is important, though, that the towers are continuously built. Unfortunately, the Philippines is one of the poorest countries in Asia in terms of telco infrastructure.
Hence, Pangilinan said his group is open to different means of increasing its tower capacities to offer 5G. “There might be some common towers. We’re open to buying, renting, colocating. We will start with what we have,” he said.