Arqiva to collaborate with Samsung for 5G launch trials

With the UK government planning to launch 5G services in 2020 and aiming to be the world leader in 5G, we can expect good competition in the mobile world. Mobile phone and broadcasting giant Arqiva takes the lead to conduct launch trials of 5G services in collaboration with Samsung. By doing so, it would give tough competition to BT Group’s Openreach. The company has chosen central London as the place to make the trials.

Best known for its services of transmitting broadcast content and connecting mobile phone calls across its 8000 sites, the company would soon tap into the 5G market. The chief executive, Simon Beresford-Wylie, clarified that the company is just participating in the trials with Samsung and has no intention to compete for the customers.

The company owns license of 28GHz spectrum band, which is the same bandwidth used by the 5G providers in the US, Japan, and South Korea. However, the bandwidth is above the range proposed by Ofcom. 5G services would be offered directly at the customer’s location through fixed-wireless broadband and would be strong competition for FTTP and G.Fast connections offered by Openreach and Virgin Media.

This move is welcomed by the government as it wants to lead the global 5G market. Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, said “We are investing £1bn to boost the UK’s digital infrastructure and support 5G trials, and will shortly be publishing our 5G strategy. But the industry will continue to play the leading role, and investments like Arqiva’s will help make sure the UK gets the benefits of new 5G networks early on.”

The EU has made predictions about the benefits of faster networks and suggests that it would give an economic boost of €113bn by 2025. We can expect tough competition between 5G providers like EE which had a strong impact on the launch of 4G. However, giants like Three and O2 seek a spectrum cap to limit providers like EE, which has 45% of the UK’s spectrum, and Vodafone which has 28% of the spectrum.

Well, all those who are waiting for 5G networks should be happy for the trials as their dream to use faster internet services would soon become a reality. In the interim, you can try Erqiva’s 5G services on Samsung devices.

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Shay Ramani