Samsung’s Strategy for 5G Equipment Cruising in Global Market

Samsung Electronics is smoothly implementing its strategies to stay ahead of the game in the 5G mobile communication network equipment market.

According to the telecommunication equipment industry on May 2, Samsung Electronics received the approval of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on an indoor router for next-generation 5G mobile communication services.

Samsung Electronics is currently working on 5G commercialization by partnering with Verizon in the United States. In January, Samsung Electronics and Verizon signed a contract on the supply of 5G communication equipment. Verizon plans to launch 5G commercial service for the first time in the world in the second half of this year. Since July last year, the US mobile carrier has implemented a tentative 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service in 11 cities across the United States. Samsung Electronics provided telecommunications equipment to seven cities, including Sacramento, the city in which Verizon will launch its first 5G commercial service.

The 5G FWA service is a technology that directly provides 5G-based ultra-high-speed mobile communication services to each household wirelessly. The service can make it easy to build a fast network in a large land area like the United States because it does not need work to lay optical cables underground and licensing or permitting processes for the work.

Since the United States has a large land area and people live mainly in single houses, about 10% of total households use broadband internet services based on optical cables. For this reason, it is necessary to realize 5G services through the FWA method which sets up a 5G router in each home and receives 5G signals via the router and sends them to terminals. Instead of installing a communication network in every building, a 5G router is installed in a building and an antenna is set up outdoors to connect with a 5G base station wirelessly.

The 5G router approved by the FCC this time allows 5G services to be wirelessly enjoyed in a home. Earlier, in February and March, Samsung Electronics’ 5G equipment was approved by the FCC.

This time, the company received the approval on an indoor 5G router. "We will be able to provide services such as autonomous vehicles and smart homes based on speed up to 20 times faster than that of the 4G long term evolution (LTE) in the 5G era," an industry expert said. “We will provide an environment where 5G services such as smart homes can be used in American homes."

In the meantime, "Competition to realize the world’s first 5G commercialization is further intensifying. It will record a 20% market share in the equipment market," said Kim Young-ki, CEO of network business at Samsung Electronics in the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 the world's largest mobile exhibition held in February. “Samsung Electronics will record a 20% share in the world network equipment market in the 5G era.”