WHO WILL BE THE 5G-NETWORK’S OUTSIDER?

Will Nokia’s acquisition of Alcatel give birth, by knock-on effect, to a new wireless networks actor? After this merger and acquisition, which major actors will remain in the wireless telecoms field?
Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, Ericsson and Nokia Corporation (Nokia + Alcatel)! It’s quite obvious that Huawei or ZTE are not necessarily welcome in the American soil. However, a competitive market requiring at least 3 actors able to compete over calls for tenders,

Americans may sooner than later find themselves in front of a very complicated alternative: two Chinese or two Europeans? Three actors do not always guarantee a perfect competition, but it’s a minimum all European calls for tenders admit. In the United-States, to equip its 5G-network, AT&T will then have the choice between Ericsson and Nokia Corp. (if it is assumed that Huawei and ZTE are automatically eliminated). When Alcatel and Lucent were allies, Alcatel were very happy to have Lucent’s support, but this is no longer true since Nokia’s acquisition of Alcatel. A competition between two actors, besides the obvious risk of an agreement between the Europeans, will, of course, not be satisfying for AT&T. Which other actor could then pull itself up to this market? Samsung? But would the Korean group show itself reliable enough in this field to pretend being able to equip a nation-wide network as broad as the United-States? Let’s focus on Cisco, which specializes in IP routers. In 2013, Cisco has invested in Ubiquisys*, an English company that manufactures 3G and LTE solutions for small private networks (small cells), and in 2014 in Altiostar**, a company that manufactures C-RAN (Cloud- Radio Access Network), wireless network’s access with Cloud intelligence. Both Ericsson and Nokia Corp. are able to provide a full-fledged solution to serve the wireless network but also Cisco’s core business: IP routing. On the other side, Cisco is not currently capable of operating in the wireless field, Ericsson and Nokia Corp’s field. However, it should not be forgotten that these technologies are to converge, which would give an advantage to the European companies over Cisco. Its recent investments show that Cisco certainly intends to pull itself to be the third actor in the wireless networks field. Set in ambush, Samsung should not be forgotten as it has demonstrated with mobile phones, a field where it had a very marginal market share 7 years ago, that it was able to become a world leader. Moreover, Samsung was not present in the 3G-network, which did not prevent it from achieving an annual turnover of 3.1 billion euros on 4G, where it has proven itself with tremendous deployments in India, Russia and Korea. Why wouldn’t the Koran company be able to reproduce with 5G what it has successfully done with 4G or Android phones, thanks to its R&D power? 5G’s future will be exciting…

* http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac49/ac0/ac1/ac259/ubiquisys.html

** http://www.altiostar.com http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/story/cisco-confirms-it-backing-lte-ran-startup-altiostar/2014-03-19