Participants:

• (Moderator) Paul Dubois, Editor and Owner, ITRNews
• Romain Bonenfant, Director General, French Federation of Telecoms
• Christian Gabetta, Managing Director, Heights Telecom
• Thibaud Lepage, Product Director, Vantiva

Connectivity has evolved to become one of the most essential day-to-day services for businesses and consumers alike. However, for those in the industry, maintaining, and improving the intricate network of different technologies and services is an ongoing challenge. The roundtable discussions focused on the key elements of access network connectivity - 5G, Wi-Fi and satellite. The panellists gathered to explore the co-existence of these technologies, highlighting the main benefits and challenges of each.

The evolution of cellular – from 4G to 5G

Discussing the development of cellular networks, Thibaud Lepage, Product Director at Vantiva, says, “We are really in the final phase of deployment of 5G.” He explains that despite the “challenges faced when it comes to propagation, reception, and transmissions”, 5G, thanks to the newly available spectrum, has opened the way to a truly massive deployment of internet access at home.

Meanwhile, Romain Bonenfant, Director General of the French Federation of Telecoms, describes how “5G is being integrated into operators’ offers, and we can see there is less and less price differentiation between 4G and 5G offers, especially around the Olympic Games, where many operators offered 5G for free on existing 4G offers.” Bonenfant adds, “There are plenty of advantages to deploying 5G for the general public.” But he states that the disruptive, differentiating use of this technology is in the professional environments.

Keeping up with wireless

The participants also discussed the industry movement around the previous, current and future iterations of Wi-Fi, including Wi-Fi 7. Dubois comments, “In many cases, Wi-Fi 7 is useless since we don’t have any devices that go with it.”

Christian Gabetta, MD of Heights Telecom, discusses the technology in more detail: “Wi-Fi 7 introduces a new technology called Multi-Link Operation (MLO). This allows devices to simultaneously use multiple Wi-Fi bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz) to create a powerful channel. Initially we are going to see MLO benefits for backhaul connectivity between repeaters and the gateway. We are going to have very few end user devices that could benefits from Wi-Fi 7 MLO services". Despite this, he confirms that Wi-Fi 7 deployments will start in 2025, and we are going to see an evolution of new services as new Wi-Fi 7 devices are launched.

Though Wi-Fi 7 is a promising technology with the potential to significantly enhance wireless performance, its practical implementation is still in its early stages.

Convergence or competition?

Nonetheless, the participants agree that each technology has an essential role to play and that their co-existence is essential for meeting the diverse and complex needs of both businesses and consumers.

Lepage discusses the decommissioning of copper and DSL. He says, “That's where the 5G CPU has a strong utility because it actually avoids having to build a fibre infrastructure, while the 5G infrastructure is there any way to provide mobility services.” He continues, “Most of our customers are operators, who deploy applications mostly for the residential market, finally. And the use case today is very different between Wi-Fi and 5G. The whole purpose of our company is to make Wi-Fi and 5G co-exist and perform in the same box.”

He adds, “There are architectures where we use two different boxes, for example, an outdoor and an indoor box. This causes a certain number of challenges including expensive and complicated installation. In most cases, we deploy an integrated 5G router that terminates the 5G connection and starts with an access point LAN Wi-Fi. It’s the most common use case in residential, and the two technologies are very appropriate for it. Wi-Fi is THE LAN technology choice. This is partly down to the excellent work that the Wi-Fi Alliance has done to ensure the interoperability between the different devices. 5G has become a relevant WAN technology thanks to the newly available spectrum and network built for mobility.”

Gabetta explains, “In our business, we see 5G and Wi-Fi as complementary technologies.” He elaborates, “Nowadays, the law states that it is necessary to provide connectivity in all the territories of the country. But in areas where the community isn’t very dense, it’s not always worth deploying fibre. Often, there are cases where 5G is very compatible with Wi-Fi.”

Takeaways

To summarise, Bonenfant says “We are aware that connectivity has become an essential service, today. There is water, there is energy, there are telecoms. If we do not have telecoms, it is indeed problematic.”

As the telco industry continues to evolve, the interplay between 5G, Wi-Fi, and satellite technologies will likely become even more complex. Collaboration among industry players and regulatory bodies will be crucial to ensure the seamless integration and optimal usage of these technologies to meet the ever-increasing demands of consumers and businesses.