I landed in the Barcelona airport for the World Mobile Congress and Exhibition (MWC 2023) at the end of February. The driver offered us Spanish SIM cards. However, my mobile phone lacks the input. I remembered switching to eSIM from Mobicom. New phones no longer utilize plastic SIMs.
The London-based GSMA, which represents over 700 operators and 400 cellular ecosystem companies, has organized MWC since 1987. It is a prestigious grand event held in Barcelona since 2006, and Las Vegas, and Shanghai every year as a meeting point for telecommunications sector.
Mongolian mobile operators Mobicom, Skytel, Unitel, G-mobile, ONDO, landline MTC JSC, basic network Information Federation Network SPJSC, IP TV triple service providers, several fintech businesses, and government representatives attended.
Industrial revolutions
Every Industrial Revolution (IR) greatly advances humanity. In the 1760s, machines replaced manual work. During the 1870s, the Second IR provided electricity to the world. The third IR, the 1970s information revolution gave humanity the fixed Internet. (PC-Internet).
We are living in the fourth IR or the digital era, started in the year 2000. The economy becomes smart and digital. The smartphone era (3G) began when connection technology advanced, call quality improved, and mobile phones added entertainment apps like photos, short videos, sending e-mails, downloading music, and watching online videos. Data transfer speeds now exceed 7.2 Mbps.
In the 1980s, we used a huge analog “brick” phone during 1G era. The 2G mobile phone started sending messages on top of making calls in 1991.
Since 2009, with the introduction of the 4G network, data transfer speed has increased dramatically to 53.3 Mbps. Smartphones that can show movies and run apps have become an inseparable part of our lives. Mobile banking, finance, and e-commerce are available at any time on our phones. This LTE (Long Term Evolution) network is the most popular one used worldwide.
Data download speed rose by thousands to 20 Gbps in industrialized countries with 5G in 2018. A 2-hour movie downloads in 50 minutes on 4G and 1 minute on 5G. GSMA estimated that 1 billion users utilize 5G by the end of 2022.
By 2030, Terra data download speed will start the 6G generation. The fifth industrial evolution will begin when the economy becomes intelligent, interconnected, and linked to the human neurological system.
Thus, connectivity—the ability to send, receive, and transmit terabytes of digital information per second at giga frequencies—is the major reason for shortening the distance between each industrial revolutions to merely few years.
Electric conductors have evolved from lamps to semiconductors, and microchips, which hold millions of “lamps” in a square the size of a nail. The quick growth in capacity made high-speed communication possible.
Challenges
5G is a cutting-edge technology that transmits data at ultra high speed, power, and minimal latency. This network will boost smart phone development and advance the IoT (Internet of Things) technology, which will connect every device to the Internet and let us operate it with our phones.
The online connection will be perfect, where the sound and visuals will be as realistic as if it was face-to-face while in different countries. Dozens can watch a concert or sing karaoke together online. Treatment and education will be available wherever. For example, a teacher will be able to teach the subject in all schools nationwide, solving the teacher shortage. Urban planning, public transport, infrastructure, and catastrophe prevention will improve greatly. Catering to individual customer needs will influence business models.
5G technology is quite costly. 2G, 3G, and 4G networks need many more stations to cover a broad region because 5G’s frequency waves are very high and its ability to penetrate structures is 10 times less than 4G.
In terms of technology, 5G involves standardizing ultra-high frequencies like 3.5-4.6GHz or 27-30GHz. To avoid wave overlap, 4G/LTE technology is disseminated in Mongolia on 1.8 MHz and up to 200 MHz wide band. (Hertz is the number of waves repeating in one second).
Radio frequency is licensed to mobile carriers and a few service providers because it is scarce and limited resource of the country’s communications. Bandwidth determines transfer speed. Low-frequency radio waves can cover wide area and penetrate any object while high frequency is the opposite.
Another advantage of 5G technology is its ultra low data transfer latency, the time duration of data traveling from one point to the other. 5G has 1 millisecond (1 second divided by 1000), or 10 times less delay than 4G. 10 milliseconds can make a difference during remote surgery operation.
In Mongolia
Mongolia will have 5G technology later than other nations, around late 2023 or early 2024. The main cause of the delay is that, with 4-5 operators in a tiny market like Mongolia, the respective costs of introducing new technologies is more expensive than it would be in a larger nation.
On the other hand, there is currently little demand, the level is currently at quickly downloads of news and information. However, 5G-based new, cutting-edge goods and services will reach the broad consumer market when 5G is available.
The Department of Communication and Information Technology authorized the policy for the rollout of 5G technology in Mongolia in April 2020. Mongolia will begin introducing 5G in the first place in the most necessary locations or in the areas with the greatest need in the central region, depending on the market conditions, because expanding the coverage of 5G is quite expensive. This year, the CRC is attempting to distribute radio frequencies to operators.
Smartphones and other 5G-capable gadgets are fairly expensive on the market, costing roughly $200 more than 4G-only products.
Telecommunications companies are purchasing infrastructure equipment from Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, and ZTE. Although the cost of infrastructure equipment was high when 5G networks were first introduced, as they spread around the globe and gain more notoriety, the costs of invention, manufacture, and operation are decreasing year by year. Investment expenses dropped as a result, and consumer prices also follow suit.
Satellite internet
Can the Mongolian government send emergency information to all residents at the same time when facing an emergency? No. No rural household has a long wave radio. What if there is no cell phone signal or the fiber optic cable breaks?
Companies such as iSat and Orbitnet currently provide Internet, telephone, and television services via satellite dishes positioned in geo-orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km, but they are not accessible to everyone. Low-orbit space communication is currently the solution that can serve everyone.
When a volcano erupted on the island of Tonga and a tsunami damaged the only cable connecting to Fiji a year ago, Elon Musk’s Starlink immediately constructed an emergency backup. Starlink also restored Internet access in Ukraine. In addition to Starlink, the English business Oneweb provides similar services.
During the MWC, the team of Minister of Digital Development and Communications N.Uchral met individually with these two firms, which can provide space communication whenever and wherever in the world. Both are ready to enter Mongolia. We must lay the grounds for them to operate in accordance with Mongolian legislation while leaving the decision to the consumers.
CEO of Starlink (Spacex), Ryan Goodnight: I went to Mongolia a year ago, and I’m ready to work any day now. It will begin immediately after approval. It is not necessary to transfer through a Mongolian company. Starlink’s 3 thousand tiny satellites orbit the Earth at a 500 km altitude. By 2027, 42 thousand satellites will be launched. Mongolia’s closest ground station (data center) is in Japan. The monthly price is $99 worldwide.
CEO of Oneweb, Neil Masterson, from England: There are currently 642 satellites (soon to be 822) in orbit, each weighing 150 kg at an altitude of 1200 km. 500 people will be connected by a single ground station. According to him, we will own the data warehouse and it is greatly suited for mining firms. He also stated his desire to work with one of Mongolia’s businesses. To learn more about the meetings, click here.
Soon, Mongolians will be able to fully enjoy the benefits and incredible solutions of 5G technology and communicate with anyone, anywhere via low-orbit satellites.
Trans. by Munkh-Erdene.D