Finland-based telecom equipment maker Nokia said it is betting big on the expected boom in the demand for 5G smartphones to enhance its licensing revenue.
Two leading chipset makers Qualcomm and Intel are also eyeing demand for 5G smartphone in global telecom markets to drive revenue.
67 telecom operators in 39 countries – nearly 10 percent of all those with LTE networks – have announced intentions of making 5G available to their customers between 2018 and 2022, said telecom industry association GSA.
GSA also said 154 operators in 66 countries have demonstrated, are testing or trialling, or have been licensed to conduct, field trials of 5G-enabling and candidate technologies (up from 134 operators in April 2018).
GSMA said Asia Pacific will become the world’s largest 5G region – with 675 million 5G connections — by 2025, led by Australia, China, Japan and South Korea.
Mobile operators in Asia will invest almost $200 billion over the next few years in upgrading and expanding their 4G networks and launching new 5G networks. By 2025, it is expected that 62 percent of Asia’s mobile connections will be running on 4G networks and 14 percent on 5G.
The early 5G launches in Asia, based on 3GPP Release 15, are expected to focus on enhanced mobile broadband services, supplementing the capacity and capabilities of existing mobile broadband networks, particularly in dense urban areas.
5G’s next phase (3GPP Release 16) will lay the foundation to support a range of future 5G use cases and innovations, including massive connectivity and low-latency services such as Internet of Things (IoT), critical communication services (e.g. remote surgery, autonomous vehicles, smart grids) and virtual reality.
Recently, LG Electronics and Sprint, a telecom service provider in the US, announced their agreement to bring the first 5G smartphone in 2019.
China-based Lenovo already announced 5G-capable smartphone from Motorola. Lenovo aims to become the first smartphone maker to launch 5G smartphone for global telecom markets.
Nokia said significant parts of the 5G standards will be based on Nokia innovations, and Nokia expects to have a significant position in SEPs once the standards are finalized later in 2018.
Nokia expects that for mobile phones which implement the 5G New Radio standard, the licensing rate for the Nokia 5G SEP portfolio will be capped at €3 per device.
Nokia licensing practices for licensing 5G SEPs for mobile phones will be consistent with its licensing undertakings made to relevant SSOs. Nokia said its licensing approach reflects the value that Nokia inventions bring to end user devices.
Beyond mobile phones, Nokia believes that there will be an unprecedented variety of end user devices that will use Nokia innovation. Nokia will determine its licensing rates separately for other categories of devices.
Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said; :”his announcement is an important step in helping companies plan for the introduction of 5G/NR capable mobile phones, with the first commercial launches expected in 2019.”
