Of all the ways I’ve seen 5G being defined and developed in the last few years, witnessing the buzz about it build at industry conferences has been one of the most exciting. Last week, Syniverse had a strong presence at just such an event, the 5G India 2018 2nd International Conference in Mumbai, and in this post I would like to share a few of our highlights.
Me, second from left, at one of the conference’s panel sessions that I participated in, “5G Technologies and Standardisation – A Deep Dive.”
A central theme we’ve communicated at these events and in our customer meetings is that one of the next big steps with 5G’s future continues to be completing the buildout of 4G LTE networks. As operators continue this buildout, they’re contending with a number of technology and business challenges being driven by a surge in LTE deployment. As a result, based on our recent work with 5G, we’ve pinpointed several areas that we think will be vital in determining the success of 5G.
Specifically, we think these five factors will play a crucial part in 5G rollout:
- Ensuring 5G and LTE co-existence.
- Maximizing interconnection footprint.
- Extending interconnection to other vertical markets.
- Ensuring roaming interoperability.
- Implementing VoLTE effectively.
Earlier this year, I explained these factors in detail in another post, which I urge to read to better understand . We’re closely following how these factors play out this year and will continue to provide further reports on how they affect 5G development.
The five factors were one of several major areas of future focus that our team addressed at the 5G India Conference. This team included our Chief Technology Officer, Chris Rivera; our Senior Vice President and Global Head of Sales, Mike McCarver; and our Vice President and Managing Director of Sales for India, the Middle East and Africa, Himanshu Goel. We joined several other Syniverse leaders along with approximately 300 other attendees.
Our team’s highlights included three speaking sessions where we discussed how our 5G services are aligned with our mission to enable businesses to build strong connections in the age of rapid digital transformation. The sessions included a presentation by Chris Rivera for a program titled “Preparing for 5G” that explained how Syniverse sees the 5G landscape today and what services we are focusing on to support it; a special address on the future of 5G by Mike McCarver to help mark the World Telecom Day celebrations observed at the conference; and a speech by me at a special 5G standardization panel titled “5G Technologies and Standardisation – A Deep Dive.”
Syniverse’s Chief Technology Officer, Chris Rivera, at the lectern, speaks at the “Preparing for 5G” session.
At this last session, I shared my insights on the latest progress on 5G standardization and the steps that India can take in shaping up the global 5G agenda. I also took the time to underline the key role that interoperability would play in the co-existence of 5G with other technologies, especially 4G; why such interoperability is needed in the first place; what it means and entails; and what the critical success factors are in ensuring it.
Speaking at the “5G Technologies and Standardisation – A Deep Dive” session.
Other panelists at the session.
Another highlight at the conference was an announcement we made that showed that inter-regional 4G LTE roaming traffic from India has grown by a staggering 3,300% over the last year. The growth was measured by analyzing global roaming traffic traversing Syniverse’s networks, and it’s a finding that holds important implications for the rollout of 5G. Specifically, the data underscores the need for the industry to more urgently prepare for 5G. If 5G is to become a reality and ubiquitously adopted, steps need to be taken to accommodate this LTE surge and strengthen the entire framework of interconnection, interoperability, security and roaming that many new 5G services will rely on.
The LTE roaming announcement capped an exciting two days of presentations and meetings at the 5G India Conference, and we’re looking forward to giving you a report from our next 5G industry event.
Some of our team members at the Syniverse booth we hosted at the conference.
One theme related to 5G that we continue to see with our customers is that with today’s rapid digital transformation, a business is only as strong as its connections. 5G will mark a new chapter in this transformation, and Syniverse will be right in the center of it, helping our customers expand and strengthen their connections in a number of new ways. So please stay tuned here to Synergy for more.
As Senior Strategy Director and Head of Industry Standards at Syniverse, Pradeep Bhardwaj serves as a senior technology adviser overseeing strategic initiatives to advance the adoption of leading-edge technologies and standards, such as 5G, the internet of things, mobile edge computing, LTE, and VoLTE. Pradeep joined Syniverse in 2005 and has built a career that encompasses more than 26 years of experience with mobile operators and telecommunication companies in the areas of GSM, fixed-line, international, wholesale, international roaming, messaging, signaling, satellite, data, and IP communications. Pradeep’s emphasis is on technology strategy, industry standards, systems engineering, and architecture. Among the leadership roles he has held in the industry, he served as the chairman of the GSMA Hubbing Provider Interworking Group from its inception to its end. He may be reached at pradeep.bhardwaj@syniverse.com.
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