Not very clear to me where the author is headed, in describing this role. I
would say, the role of 5G might be to enable more credible wireless streaming
of TV content, primarily for on-demand access of course, than what is possible
with 4G. Fixed or mobile service. The other roles of 5G, for broadcasters,
might be for the broadcasters' own news crews, to get content to the studio.
"On the radio side, adoption of digital radio technology continues to expand as
more broadcasters employ in-band on-channel digital transmissions and consumers
and auto manufacturers increasingly embrace digital radio receivers."
Would be nice. It's been a really, really long time coming, if this is true.
The equipment vendors are not doing this, that I can tell, but maybe more new
cars are installing HD Radio. But honestly, neither HD Radio, nor ATSC 3.0,
have anything directly to do with 5G. It's a bit of the Internet vs DTV hype we
were getting, back ca. 2000.
"For now, 5G and digital broadcast technologies are operating on parallel
paths. But just as the internet has blurred the line between content creators
and content distributors, emerging transmission technologies have the potential
to blur the lines between wireless providers and broadcasters."
Instead, I would have said, just as Internet sites and Internet broadband
service are clearly different and distinct, to anyone other than today's
clueless FCC, broadcast and unicast wireless industries are also different and
distinct. Layering IP on top of one-to-all broadcast might fool some to believe
otherwise, but functionally, these are still fundamentally different.
Again, much like "digital broadcast TV" and "the (digital) Internet" are quite
completely different.
"Put another way, just as 5G may enable increased use of traditional wireless
spectrum for distribution of audio and video content, digital radio and ATSC
3.0 may enable the increased use of broadcast spectrum for distribution of
data."
You mean, like ATSC 1.0 could have been doing, ever since 1998? Sure.
"Broadcasting's greatest - and unique - strength, meanwhile, remains its
ability to efficiently distribute content to many recipients at the same time."
And the express purpose of cellular technologies, such as 5G, their very raison
d'etre, is just the opposite. The greatest strength of cellular is to allow
such enormous reuse of spectrum that the general public can benefit from
wireless unicast. In TV lingo, on demand service. The greatest strength of
broadcast was that it was the only game in town, to get wideband signals out
*at all*. Wide band wireless signals were either sent as broadcast or not sent
at all.
Bert
---------------------------------------------------
https://www.tvtechnology.com/opinions/the-role-of-broadcasting-in-a-5g-future
The Role of Broadcasting in a 5G Future
Broadcasters should plan to "ensure that 5G is an asset rather than a liability"
Ari S. Meltzer 12 hours ago
You need to have your head in the sand these days to avoid talk about the
next-generation wireless technology commonly known as 5G.
Proponents of 5G technology tout its ability to create new jobs; spark the
growth of "smart cities"; manage command, control and payload for unmanned
aircraft systems; and enable significant innovations in health care,
transportation and public safety. And while it might be easy to discount 5G as
simply a wireless technology, there is significant potential opportunity here
for broadcasters, too.
Broadcasters would be wise to educate themselves now about what 5G is and how
it could affect the broadcast industry going forward.
5G principally refers to a wireless standard adopted by the 3rd Generation
Partnership Project ("3GPP") in December 2017 known as 5G NR ("5G" because it
is the fifth generation wireless standard and "NR" for "New Radio"), although
some early 5G deployments rely on other 5G standards.
The Federal Communications Commission, for its part, appears fully committed to
advancing 5G in the United States. Chairman Ajit Pai and other FCC
commissioners regularly speak about the importance of winning the race to 5G,
and the commission has backed its words with actions, taking a number of steps
to make spectrum available for 5G applications and adopting new rules over the
past year to streamline deployment of the potentially hundreds of thousands of
small wireless facilities needed to take full advantage of 5G technologies.
The competition to be the "first to 5G" exists both at home and abroad. Here in
the United States, wireless providers are vying to be the first to offer 5G,
with trial launches already underway in some markets and the promise of
nationwide 5G networks within the next few years. Meanwhile, the United States,
China, South Korea, Japan and others are battling to be the first country to
deploy a commercially viable, large-scale 5G network, which comes not only with
bragging rights and the direct benefits that come from deploying a
next-generation technology, but also the opportunity to establish the features
and implementations to be used worldwide, fueling equipment manufacturing and
exports.
5G CHARACTERISTICS
One of the features of the 5G NR standard is that it can operate on a wide
variety of frequencies. 5G divides spectrum into two groups: FR1 (450 MHz - 6
GHz) and FR2 (24 GHz - 52 GHz) (millimeter wave spectrum). Today's mainstream
wireless networks operate on the low and mid-band spectrum associated with FR1,
which travels greater distances and, particularly on the lower end of the
frequency range (near existing broadcast spectrum), features stronger building
penetration. Millimeter wave spectrum, meanwhile, is characterized by short
wavelengths and large bands that can carry substantial amounts of data.
The use of millimeter wave spectrum as part of 5G networks has the potential to
transform both how wireless providers deliver data and how Americans consume
it. To take advantage of the benefits of millimeter wave spectrum, wireless
carriers plan to deploy hundreds of thousands of new small cells - in many
cases several per square mile. Networks utilizing this new infrastructure
promise to offer more speed, more capacity and lower latency than existing
networks. The FCC recently reached a milestone in the transition to
next-generation wireless networks with the conclusion of Auction 101, the
nation's first auction of millimeter wave spectrum for the deployment of 5G
services.
The wireless industry trade group CTIA has estimated that 5G networks, using
millimeter wave technology, will generate a throughput 10 times faster than 4G:
possibly reaching over 1 Gbps. 5G networks will also offer connection density
up to 100 times greater than 4G, meaning more devices will be able to utilize
the same frequencies. Finally, lower latency associated with 5G networks will
allow for near real-time interactions, allowing wireless networks to fuel
applications like virtual reality and remote medical services that are not
possible today.
Wireless providers are adopting different approaches to 5G - dictated, in large
part, by their existing spectrum holdings. T-Mobile is planning to rely heavily
on the 600 MHz spectrum that it acquired in the recent TV Broadcast Incentive
Auction for its initial 5G deployments, providing broad coverage and
in-building penetration that is not possible with higher band spectrum. AT&T
and Verizon, which hold licenses for large amounts of spectrum in the 28 GHz,
37 GHz and 39 GHz bands, are focused on launching 5G using their millimeter
wave spectrum, which will require a substantial investment in dense
infrastructure to achieve the speed and capacity benefits that come with
millimeter wave deployments. Sprint's 5G plans, meanwhile, center around using
"massive MIMO" - the use of 64 transmitters and receivers in a single array -
to optimize its existing 2.5 GHz spectrum.
While the wireless industry is working to deliver its next generation networks,
broadcasters are undergoing a technological renaissance of their own. On the
radio side, adoption of digital radio technology continues to expand as more
broadcasters employ in-band on-channel digital transmissions and consumers and
auto manufacturers increasingly embrace digital radio receivers. On the
television side, meanwhile, ATSC 3.0 promises to allow broadcasters to make
better use of their spectrum by utilizing IP-based delivery for both video and
data content, increasing the usable bandwidth associated with each channel and
allowing better interconnectivity with other IP-based systems.
For now, 5G and digital broadcast technologies are operating on parallel paths.
But just as the internet has blurred the line between content creators and
content distributors, emerging transmission technologies have the potential to
blur the lines between wireless providers and broadcasters.
After all, even on existing 4G networks, wireless users consume a substantial
amount of data to stream audio and video content. Meanwhile, emerging digital
broadcast technologies may allow broadcasters to think about broadcasting less
as an audio or video service and more as a service for delivering data, whether
it be audio content, video content, or something else entirely. Put another
way, just as 5G may enable increased use of traditional wireless spectrum for
distribution of audio and video content, digital radio and ATSC 3.0 may enable
the increased use of broadcast spectrum for distribution of data.
While there is likely to be increasing overlap between wireless and
broadcasting in the future, the technologies are just as likely to emerge as
complementary services as competing ones. Even as technology continues to
expand the utility of wireless and broadcasting alike, each will offer its own
strengths. While 5G has the potential to revolutionize the way consumers
interact with information and with each other, emerging 5G networks are still
built around a traditional one-to-one architecture that prioritizes
customization and on-demand content delivery over a shared experience.
While it technically may be possible to broadcast content over 5G networks, not
only would that require new equipment to reach devices like radios and TVs, but
it would not seem to be the best use of 5G networks designed around
densification. Nevertheless, streaming is likely to be a major consumer feature
of 5G, and broadcasters should be prepared to take advantage of the increased
bandwidth and low latency that 5G networks will offer.
Broadcasting's greatest - and unique - strength, meanwhile, remains its ability
to efficiently distribute content to many recipients at the same time. To the
extent broadcasters attempt to expand their use of spectrum for data services,
therefore, the most likely use cases are those intended to reach large
audiences (e.g., software updates, music albums, TV shows, movies, etc.) and
that require a wide geographic reach, including areas that can't be reached
readily or efficiently by small cells.
Importantly, 5G has the potential to transform and improve how broadcasters can
operate behind the scenes, as well. Today, broadcasters increasingly rely on
wireless networks for everything from uploading a news story from the field to
transmitting entire remote broadcasts. 5G networks promise to enhance the
reliability of existing wireless data transmissions while making them useful
for more data-intensive applications, such as point-to-point links, that
currently are frequently relegated to microwave, fiber or satellite.
The time is now for broadcasters to develop their plans for the 5G future.
Although widespread availability of 5G services is not yet here, the promotion
of 5G is already in overdrive, and broadcasters should begin planning now for
how they can ensure that 5G is an asset rather than a liability. This may
include steps such as expanding their streaming offerings to better compete
against the plethora of services likely to take advantage of 5G networks in
coming years and compete for space on the dashboard to updating capital
planning budgets to account for purchases of 5G enabled hardware.
Broadcasters have repeatedly demonstrated remarkable dexterity in adapting to
technological change. In the past 20 years alone, they have adapted to the rise
of the internet as a content delivery medium to 3G and then 4G wireless
services, not only meeting competition head on, but also utilizing new
technologies to improve their own product, developing new broadcast standards
from digital radio and IBOC on the radio side to DTV and ATSC 3.0 for
television.
5G presents a potential opportunity to take things to another level, delivering
performance that rivals the best wireline internet services with the
flexibility of wireless connection. Consumer electronics companies, medical
device manufacturers, city planners, automobile manufacturers and others are
already planning for new and exciting ways to take advantage of 5G services,
and broadcasters would be wise to be right beside them.
The author is a partner in the telecommunications, media and technology
practice at Wiley Rein LLP. Wiley Rein Engineering Consultant Richard Engelman
and Consulting Counsel Bruce A. Romano contributed to this commentary.
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