5G Fixed Wireless Access is a hot topic these days. The early successes of 5G FWA was largely focused in the mid-bands due to the economics of rolling out 5G on the existing mobile footprint. Now, the growing availability of mmWave spectrum is driving new deployment models supporting capacity overlays to compliment mid-band rollouts. In this interview with Leopold Diouf, Vice president and General Manager of Nokia Fixed Networks Broadband Devices Business unit, we not only discuss the evolution of 5G FWA and new innovations that make indoor, self-installable mmWave deployments possible.
Alejandro Pinero:
Great. Well, thank you everyone for joining us for another one of our Fierce Wireless Digital interviews. My name is Alejandro Pinero. I'm the Senior Director here at Fierce. And it's a great pleasure today to be joined by Leopold Diouf. He is the Vice President and General Manager of Nokia's Fixed Networks' Broadband Devices business unit. And today, we're going to be talking, primarily, about Fixed Wireless Access. So let's take a step back and think about, or hear what you have to say, rather, about those early factors for success.
Leopold Diouf:
There are three key factors that determine the early successes of 5G Fixed Wireless Access, the first one is capacity. So for the first time, Fixed Wireless Access technology brought the capacity that allows through fixed-grade services. The second one is great economics in the mid bands as it shares the 4G grids, the existing 4G grids, and reduces significantly the need for new sites and it allows a shared use case with mobile broadband. The third case is service agility. 5G requires no right-of-ways so if you really order the service, you can get the service set up very quickly. That is very significant and very important.
Now, to support the quick roll up of 5G, innovations have to come in. And we had to come up with innovations in features that allowed usability with integrated mesh wifi. That's very important. Second, we needed to develop the applications to make it self-installable so that operators can reduce their OpEx in installing the devices. The next key element in doing that, in innovation, is high-gain antennas combined with carrier aggregation that improve radio efficiency so that we can connect further and connect more people.
Alejandro Pinero:
As you look ahead, right, so new deployment models, new ideas to deploy Fixed Wireless Access, a lot of talk about Millimeter Wave. Can you talk a little bit about how that piece of spectrum fits into the Fixed Wireless Access puzzle
Leopold Diouf:
It is true, Millimeter Wave enjoyed a lot of early attention in certain regions where 5G was first deployed. Then it took a backseat to the more widely available mid band spectrum and to the more widely deployed mid band. However, that is changing, Millimeter Wave spectrum have become more widely available around the world, the ecosystem for Millimeter Wave have significantly matured and the chipset ecosystem has also come to maturity.
Alejandro Pinero:
Can we dig a bit deeper into those limitations of Millimeter Wave, whether it's line-of-sight and range and distance? How can we overcome those challenges or what's the strategy there from your perspective?
Leopold Diouf:
Yes, Millimeter Waves come with high speed and high capacity, but it comes also with the challenges that you've just mentioned. We've found in our trials that these challenges can be overcome with our innovative approaches. So we were first to develop a Millimeter Wave device that supports 360 degree high-gain antennas with the proper analytics that allows indoor deployment of Millimeter Wave in highly dense urban environment. These technologies and the high-gain allow us to recover signals that have been attenuated going into the home. And we have developed algorithm with that to allow adapting the device with the changing environment that, generally, 5G is subjected to.
Alejandro Pinero:
Well, Leopold, to wrap up here, we've talked a lot about Millimeter Wave, we've talked about what's made Fixed Wireless Access successful to date, any other factors of success?
Leopold Diouf:
The first thing we do is create applications that have deep insight on what's happening inside into the operator network and take that knowledge and put it into the hands of the end user so that they can actually self-install and self-service themselves with the devices they have at home. By doing that, it becomes a win-win, the operator doesn't need to send an installer and the end user doesn't need to be sitting there waiting for someone to come and do it. So it's actually something that benefits the operators. That's really, really important and our operators really appreciate that.
The other key element is we've created what we call a FastMile Controller, that FastMile Controller gives the ability to the operator to actually automate the quality of service across different elements of the network. And if you put those two elements together, plus the technology and the innovation that we put in place, it gives great value to our operators.
Alejandro Pinero:
That's great. Well, Leopold, thank you so much for your time. It's been really eyeopening to hear about your views on Fixed Wireless Access, Millimeter Wave and so on. So thank you again for joining us and it's been really, really great having you.
Leopold Diouf:
Thank you, Alejandro, and thanks again for the opportunity.
Alejandro Pinero:
All right. Take care. And thank you all of you as well for watching. And of course, as always, stay tuned for more insightful interviews such as this one here on Fierce Wireless. Thanks so much.