23 February 2023 – Vodafone has unveiled a prototype 5G network built on a credit card-sized Raspberry Pi personal computer and an equally small, advanced silicon chipset.
GlobalData, a data and analytics company, says “Beyond the ‘network on a chip’ aspect, a pre- Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2023 announcement is notable for the UK-based telecom major’s eagerness to position the concept as a solution for private 5G in the small business segment which represents a much larger addressable market than current solutions enjoy today.”
The prototype cellular base station reportedly uses a small, 5G-compatible embeddable software-defined radio (SDR) circuit board, supplied by UK-based semiconductor firm Lime Microsystems. This is also compatible with Open RAN software.
John Marcus, principal technology analyst for Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, says, “Beyond the low-cost “network on a chip” aspect, the next most provocative piece of Vodafone’s announcement comes from the vendor’s highlighting of new, large, market segments that can be served by a credit card-sized 5G network. The first of these is private 5G for small and medium-sized enterprises, which would represent an exponentially larger number of potential customers than today’s target market of large industrials.”
GlobalData analysis finds that the concept could serve several use cases, from campus networks to indoor coverage, and from private network applications including industrial IoT to providing boosted public 5G coverage where an enterprise needs it. Finding traction in the small business segment for private 5G, however, is unlikely to materialise any time soon. It is important to note that the Vodafone concept is only a prototype, with no further published plans for commercialisation of the technology.
Marcus concludes, “Vodafone has not launched a product or service, but it is easy to imagine what it might look like when it does. In some ways, it resembles 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), but it could also become part of vertical IoT solutions which require the throughput and latency of 5G but so far cannot justify the cost of private networks.”
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