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Watching TV on 5G mobile?

YouTube TV service and Apple TV or Google Chromecast are included with Verizon's initial 5G residential broadband launch. https://www.verizonwireless.com/5g/home/

So 5G has disrupted the traditional way of watching TV.
Do you think it will be the new trend of watching TV?


  • I think 5G will become an important part of the mix in delivering television type content.  Video already makes up the majority of broadband data traffic and this will continue to increase, putting more strain on all parts of the network so even for fixed locations 5G is likely to play a significant role, and when the viewer is out and about the mobile delivery nature of 5G (assuming the coverage is good enough - it is really irritating to fall off the edge of a usable cell!) will be really valuable.  It's not clear though whether there are extra charges in this case for getting the video and thus using more bandwidth, since after the first few months an additional $40/month charge appears to kick in.
  • As Graham says, it is widely predicted that video will form about three quarters of the traffic over 5G networks. However, this particular announcement from Verizon does not really address the question "watching TV over 5G mobile?" because it is a fixed wireless access application of 5G - effectively a wireless alternative to fibre-to-the-home. The early adoption of 5G for this application in USA addresses particular national factors in the broadband market, which are not very relevant to UK (or indeed most other European countries).


    The question "watching TV over 5G mobile?" has at least four elements:

    1) What is TV? TV programme consumption has moved from 'linear broadcasting' towards on-demand and object-oriented programming. 'Linear' broadcasting is more suited to home consumption on large screens, whereas on-demand is more appropriate for people on the move.


    2) On what device will it be watched? People are increasingly consuming video content on tablets, smartphones and other portable devices. However, the size of flat screen TVs is also increasing, which are fixed in one location.


    3) How much mobility is needed? Large flat screens are not at all mobile, and will generally receive content either through broadcast technologies (DTT, satellite or cable) or the broadband connection to the home (which might use 5G technology, as in the Verizon announcement). Portable devices, when in the home, will probably use the broadband connection via WiFi. Outside the home, they are more likely to use 5G (public transport increasingly provides WiFi, but this may well be 'backhauled' using 5G).


    4) What is 5G? Only one open standardisation body (3GPP) is currently developing specifications for a 5G radio access network - which it defines as 'Release 15' of its specifications. This has three elements:

    - an evolution of LTE (the 4G radio interface)

    - a "New Radio", for deployment in frequency bands used by 4G and new bands in a similar frequency range (up to 6GHz)

    - a radio interface for deployment in millimetre-wave bands (above 24.25GHz).

    These have different capabilities and timeframes for deployment.


    For a more detailed discussion, see the paper that I presented at the 2018 International Broadcasting Convention, IBC (an IET-sponsored conference): https://www.ibc.org/delivery/5g-the-vision-the-reality-and-the-future-/3296.article
  • I am very much not on the 5G party line - I don't see half of the applications that they want it used for actually being viable or used at all. For video there is little or no advantage to moving to it whilst we still have DVB-T/T2 infrastructure in use (there is NO advantage and that infrastructure is already sunk cost), and even when that is shut down in the transition to IP based delivery the vast majority of that will be done over Fixed line, leaving (in the UK at least) this to be used for less than 0.5% to 1% of the population. That may justify the cost models of 5G technology itself, which from a major equipment vendor's analysis was pointing to €40 MONTHLY ARPU being required to even PAY for the usage and not even the deployment costs. Mobile video delivery will take place but will be as generic unicast IP delivery as it is today, but whether it will use 5G is somewhat doubtful as the cell density/shared media/transmissability issues of these high frequency transmissions will almost certainly mean that in actual usage we will be still be using 4G technology and frequencies.


    The challenge in real terms for 5G is that it is a technology in search of an application and not the other way round.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    I think saying that 5G is a technology in search of a solution is a little harsh. I think your point is equally well made by saying it's a technology that was needed to replace and improve 4G which was then over-engineered to service speculative use-cases. I do like some of the ideas that it has, but I, too, feel its hard in the broadcast world to see it making many real changes. Other industries, more so. 

    I was interested to see this week that AT&T are saying that they will charge for speed increments meaning you won't be able to just expect to get 1Gbps if no one else is using your local cell. That makes sense and would be a sensible way to fund it. We shall see if that idea takes hold anywhere else.


    At the end of the day, I'm yet to understand if it will help them serve places like Paddington railway station properly. Perhaps they can already do it with 4G - but have chosen not to. You can get a signal and I've not had issues making calls. But data is very slow - whether that's due to RF bandwidth or the uplink bandwidth into the cell(s), it's clear something not working. If there's an RF saturation issue, then hopefully 5G can help. If they could fix it now with more 4G cells and/or more bandwidth to the cells, then why would 5G get any better investment?


    I don't think 5G spells the end or the beginning to any form of TV. It should mean that we can watch video in more places and in better quality when we do. That, in turn, will allow us to continue to watch video on our terms, and not like we were forced to before the internet. You have to define TV pretty narrowly to say that watching a drama series on mobile internet is different to watching it on TV. 


    Internet delivery - and hence 5G - is a threat in terms of a) displacing established companies and b) displacing important infrastructure. Like it or loathe it, a UK-wide transmission infrastructure which everyone can watch such as the DVB-T network and the FM radios is important in times of emergency – and emergencies do happen. The DTG, Arqiva and other interested parties are going to have to work hard to make sure it remains interesting and useful else they may find their world under threat.


    I've never had much good to say about ATSC, but ATSC 3.0 – delivering broadcast TV using IP-over-RF – seems like the kind of innovation which not only helps broadcasters get some form of economies of scale between their online and broadcast outputs but also keeps the broadcast infrastructure relevant and ripe for investment and innovation. And that is more relevant to broadcast than 5G vs 4G.


    Russell Trafford-Jones

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  • I am harsh but only at the  hype that people surround 5G with. At its core - providing high speed data with improved latency IN SOME IMPLEMENTATIONS - is a natural evolution, but the hype that tries to fit it to so many different and vague use cases is what I react to.


    Some more information has come available since I posted.


    Equipment suppliers like Huawei and Nokia continue to hype its use for TV, Autonomous cars, low latency apps and IoT.... Operators like Vodafone and EE/BT have also continued this. Some operators in the US have tellingly now started to undersell 5G including the fact that they don't expect to provide it outside of cities, that its rollout will take quite a long time, its coverage will be patchy, and the level of support for all features that are in the hype will be partial. In most instances this means that 5G is just like 4G and will not be the 'second coming of Christ' for TV, IoT and Autonomous cars. The reality of the deployment of a technology that is actually multiple different implementations depending on spectrum used and type of antennae used is starting to be understood to be very complex. Certainly it is not going to replace DVB-T/T2 infrastructure that is already deployed, nor be deployed in a green field country where fixed connections meet most requirements with edge/remote areas support only be the use case that 5G may deliver on...
  • The consumer behaviour of watching TV has moved a lot from watching traditional broadcasting TV to video-on-demand. The video contents do not just come from commercial content provider like Netflix and Youtube, but also from social networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp. In fact, already three-quarter (or more) of traffic on 4G LTE network is video. I don’t think mobile video will replace the traditional TV at home, but just people can now watch video on the road where they couldn’t do so before.

    5G provides a bigger bandwidth and better latency, so it opens the door for new types of multimedia applications too. There could potentially be a lot more video cameras, may they be surveillance cameras for security purpose or input of road conditions in autonomous cars. There could also be more interactive multimedia, such as video games and AR. A lot of these videos are not designed for human to watch; they are more likely for AI to “watch” and decide on appropriate responses (Internet-of-Things).

    It is true that building an extensive 5G network with good coverage will take time. It occupies a higher frequency spectrum meaning that it needs investment in rolling out and there would be challenges in acquiring the sites to install the equipment.

    The fun part of new technology is that engineers dare to dream about use cases and hope customers buy in! 5G networks are now gradually launched, and let’s see if any of these dreams come true!