When the iPhone 15 launch conference was in the spotlight, a so-called communications expert accused the iPhone of falsifying 5G signals, which caused a stir. Public opinion initially questioned Apple's fraud. However, more professionals on Zhihu pointed out this. Many experts don’t understand 5G technology. This problem may lie with the operators rather than Apple.
People who claim to be technical engineers in the communications industry said that both 3GPP and domestic industry standards pointed out that a standard called "Config D" allows mobile phones to display 5G in the absence of 5G NR signals, that is, in the operator's base station When the terminal sends out a signal that supports 5G, even if the 4G base station has not yet set up a 5G radio frequency to send out a signal, the mobile terminal can display 5G.
Operators and communication equipment manufacturers do this because of the needs of 5G development. Since 5G uses medium and high frequency bands, the construction density of 5G base stations is too high and the investment is too large, which makes the construction of 5G networks too difficult. Therefore, the communication industry initially planned to 5G is developed using the 5G NSA networking method with lower cost and lower technical difficulty. The purpose of allowing mobile phones to display 5G signals is to familiarize consumers with 5G as early as possible and promote the development of 5G.
The communications industry does have their reasons for doing this. Today, 5G has been commercially available in China for four years. 5G is still unable to fully cover rural areas. Now China's operators are preparing to promote low-frequency 5G to build 5G networks to complete them as soon as possible. The 5G network covering the whole country shows how difficult it is to build a 5G network.
China has been the fastest to build 5G networks. At present, the proportion of 5G base stations built in China accounts for 60% of the world's 5G base stations. The construction of 5G networks in other countries is far slower than China. Under such circumstances, consumers must feel that 5G adopts the above-mentioned measures. It is reasonable to think of alternative methods.
In fact, for the development of 5G, because 5G uses high-frequency bands, it is too difficult to build 5G networks. There are many technical routes to develop 5G around the world. China initially focused on construction of the 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz frequency bands in the medium and high frequency bands. For 5G, operators have done their best in the first two years.
However, as the number of 5G base stations reached a certain scale, operators soon felt a headache. Not only was the investment in 5G network construction too large, but the operating costs were also high. In the first half of 2020, results announced by an operator showed that the number of 5G base stations reached 30 Tens of thousands of base stations, the electricity bill for 5G networks has actually increased by 50%. You must know that the number of 4G base stations can reach more than 2.4 million, and there are millions of 2G base stations. Such a small number of 5G base stations will require such a huge electricity bill, which makes operators Too much to take.
Subsequently, it was reported that operators have taken measures to intelligently manage 5G base stations, which essentially means shutting down 5G base stations during idle periods to reduce electricity bills; it is too difficult to build 5G in mid- and high-frequency bands. In 2021, China Mobile began to cooperate with China Radio and Television to build 5G in the 700MHz low-frequency band 5G, since the end of last year, China Unicom and China Telecom have obtained licenses to build 5G in the low-frequency 900MHz and 800MHz frequency bands respectively. The three major operators have adopted low-frequency 5G to build 5G networks.
This is enough to show that the difficulty of 5G network construction and operation is too great. What is interesting is that now Chinese operators have returned to low-frequency 5G. At that time, domestic media once questioned the low-frequency 5G of the American operator AT&T as fake 5G, and even triggered the 5G NSA There is a dispute between SA and genuine 5G. However, in order to reduce costs, overseas operators mainly focus on the lower-cost 5G NSA.
These factors all show that the development of 5G is not easy. In order to let consumers feel 5G, it is indeed a bit wrong for operators to display 5G on mobile phones when 5G NR signals have not yet been provided. However, this is in line with international norms and should be pursued seriously. The problem does not lie with Apple, but with the operators. This is embarrassing for the operators, but it also shows that the operators are actually ready to cover 5G on Beijing Subway Line 10.