5G, 6G and Metaverse- IEEE

Immersion in metaverses

Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious and costly plan to build a metaverse platform has inspired a series of metaverse-related initiatives by individuals, celebrities, companies, banks, and even governments. In February, a couple from Tamil Nadu threw a metaverse reception with a Hogwarts theme for friends and family. Enterprises, too, have shown a lot of interest, be it a textile firm such as Mafatlal Industries, which is opening a metaverse gallery, or the Bengaluru international airport, which is making some of its terminals available in the metaverse.

IT firm TechMahindra also launched a platform called TechMVerse in February to build metaverse experiences for its enterprise customers. According to a June report by Mckinsey & Company, the metaverse may generate up to $5 trillion in economic value by 2030 for both consumer and enterprise markets. The report also showed that $120 billion was invested in metaverse projects globally in the first five months of 2022, more than double the $57 billion invested in 2021.

Which cutting-edge areas of technology will be among the five most important in 2023? Global technology leaders surveyed said cloud computing (40%), 5G (38%), metaverse (37%), electric vehicles (EVs) (35%), and the Industrial Internet of Things (33%) will be the five most important areas of technology in 2023.

Recently concluded IEEE- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

This year was a mixed bag for the tech industry. The crypto crash was both a big blow and wake-up call for investors and regulators. The first images captured by the James Webb space telescope gave us a glimpse of cosmic events such as the birth and death of stars. Claims of Google LaMDA becoming sentient and the buzz around the public release of the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot called ChatGPT also created quite a stir. The metaverse, web3, and chip manufacturing also made the news. Here’s our pick of five such technologies that shaped 2022.

5G on a roll

Telcos are hoping that 5G will transform enterprises the way 4G helped consumers. 5G’s biggest advantage is reducing latency, or the time that data takes to reach users, from 20 milliseconds in 4G to somewhere around 1 millisecond. For instance, watching Fifa World Cup 2022 would have been a delight for many with 5G networks. The first rollouts took place in 2019 in South Korea and the US, but since then 5G has been rolled out in over 70 countries. In India, 5G services were launched by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio in October. According to a GSMA Intelligence report, published in October, 5G can contribute $455 billion to the Indian economy between 2023 and 2040. India is expected to have 31 million 5G subscribers by the year-end, as per Ericsson’s Mobility report, published in November. Phone makers have already shipped 67 million 5G smartphones, too, and this figure is expected to grow to 80 million by this year-end, according to analysts at IDC.

The takeaway from IEEE’s for hot technology trends in the year 2023, based on the views of 300 plus CTOs, CIOs and IT directors.

5G technologies will have the biggest impacts in the ensuing year on 

• Remote Connectivity like telepresence, video conferences,
• Education, 
• Telemedicine 
• Entertainment 

Enhanced by 5G, “the lines between cellular and Wi-Fi will continue to blur as devices make use of available connectivity without the need for user intervention,” adds David Witkowski, also an IEEE senior member.

The study also predicts. 5G “will enable remote collaboration, remote operations, remote management and remote services,” said Bala Prasad Peddigari, a senior member with IEEE. “This will eliminate the physical presence and help to drive cost optimization and improve speed of communication.”

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One reason 5G is important: Fast data transfer speeds will give users a more immersive experience with fewer lags. “5G’s low-latency technologies enable near-real time representation of images and sound,” says Witkowski.

There is more here... At the same time the rollout of 5G is underway, the groundwork is being laid for 6G technologies, IEEE finds. Almost all global technology leaders, 88%, agree that 6G will primarily be an evolving work in progress in 2023, but will be standardized within the next five years. “During that time, expect to see new use cases and a broader discussion on the generation’s performance parameters.” the study’s authors predict.

“The process of defining 6G is underway, and there are research efforts for 6G technologies, but I think the majority of development is still pending,” Witkowski said. “We need to realize that each cellular generation partly exists to fix the limitations of the previous generation. In order to understand those limitations, we need to push the 5G network to its limits, but many 5G networks don’t yet have 5G cores. We don’t truly understand the limitations of 5G yet.”

Also emerging are digital twins and the metaverse. Ninety-eight percent of respondents said digital twin technologies will be important in 2023, (including 68% who said very important), to efficiently design, develop and safely test product prototypes and manufacturing processes.

Metaverse is defined by the IEEE report’s authors as “an immersive digital network of 3D interactive worlds.” Connectivity may drive development of metaverse features over the next year, and “connectivity may be more important than hardware when it comes to the metaverse,” the survey shows. When asked to indicate which innovations for advancing the metaverse in 2023 they considered very important, 71% of respondents said 5G and ubiquitous connectivity – higher than VR headsets (58%), augmented reality glasses (58%) and haptic devices that stimulate touch (56%).

Don’t count hardware out, however. “While ubiquitous connectivity will facilitate smoother interactions, advances in computing power are likely to make VR headsets lighter, more energy efficient and ultimately, more comfortable, according to IEEE senior member Eleanor Watson. She noted that high-powered chips in the 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer class may foster better hardware. “This rendering power will enable more sophisticated processing of 3D worlds. But the greatest sticking point in VR is lenses. Plastic lenses are cheap, but ineffective. Bringing the price down could enable a greatly improved experience.” 

ChatGPT - What is AI

 

Microsoft-backed and Elon Musk-founded AI research firm OpenAI created a stir in November by unveiling a human-like conversational AI chatbot called ChatGPT, which got more than a million users in just the first week of its launch. 

People have since used ChatGPT to write rebuttals to health insurance claims, turn the AI against Musk himself, write poems, articles, books and even code. Other AI tools like Dall-E, Point-E MidJourney, and LensaAI, too, can draw, paint, and even convert people’s selfies into (sometimes unrealistic) avatars. But these tools can also generate fake news, fake images, fake videos, and malicious code. Besides, Prof. 

Tim Goldstein from the University of Maryland estimates that ChatGPT costs about $3 million per day to run. AI tools will, thus, have to be affordable, responsible, explainable and environment-friendly too.

5G WIIF India- Wafer Fabs

WIF- What is In IT For India - Wafer Fabs

India set the ball rolling in earnest to set up semiconductor plants with its ₹76,000 crore PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme in December 2021. The idea is to make the country self-reliant in semiconductors while saving money on imports and help compete with countries such as China.

If the International Semiconductor Consortium (ISMC) gets the Indian government’s sanction to set up a wafer fab in India, chipmaker Intel, too, will be a part of the project since it announced the acquisition of Tower Semiconductor in February. ISMC is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Next Orbit Ventures and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor. Singapore firm IGSS Ventures said it would invest $3.2 billion in Tamil Nadu to set up a high-tech semiconductor park in the state. Foxconn and Vedanta plan to set up a semiconductor fab unit, a display fab unit, and a semiconductor assembling and testing unit over 1,000 acres in Gujarat’s capital Ahmedabad. The three proposals for wafer fabs worth $13.6 billion have sought $5.6 billion in government support.

India has rolled out incentives to make this endeavor a fast reality !!!. Check a quick peek for the corporates.

There is economic rationale to build the fab in India as the interest from majors like Dell, Apple, Acer, HP, Asus, etc has risen and so has teh consumption and demand to make more in India. The country's share is likely to grow to 10% from current 3% which will be approx. $300Bn. 

India also holds the R&D advantage as majors like Samsung and Qualcomm hold large centers here. This will provide much needed impetus to progress and offer the state of the art facility.

5G now available in India, How to check your eligibility.

 
5G is here. Both Reliance Jio and Airtel have launched their 5G services in some parts of the country. Airtel 5G is already available in 8 cities starting last week and beginning today Jio 5G service is rolling out in 4 cities. Now, it should be noted that not all smartphone will be able to support Airtel or Jio 5G.Only smartphones with 5G network will be able to support 5G service from Jio and Airtel. In simple words, people who are on 2G, 3G or 4G smartphone right now will not be able to enjoy the high speed 5G service. So, does your smartphone support 5G? Not sure? Well, there's a way to find out if your existing smartphone supports 5G or not.

How to find out if your phone supports 5G

Step 1: On your phone, head to the Settings app
Step 2: Click on the option 'Wi-Fi & Network'
Step 3: Click on 'SIM & Network' option
Step 4: You will be able to see a list of all technologies under the 'Preferred network type' option.
Step 5: If your phone supports 5G, it will be listed as 2G/3G/4G/5G.

If you are living in city where Airtel or Jio are rolling out 5G services, then you can simply click on the 2G/3G/4G/5G option to try out high speed internet.

So, if you want to run 5G, you will need to buy a 5G phone first. There are several smartphone companies offering 5G smartphones across various price points. 

In fact, brands like Realme and Lava have confirmed to launch 5G phone for under Rs 10,000.

Starting today, Reliance Jio is rolling out 5G service as a beat trial in 4 cities including - Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Varanasi. Airtel, on the other hand, is offering 5G services in 8 cities including -- Delhi, Varanasi, Nagpur, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Siliguri. Airtel CEO recently confirmed that pan India rollout of 5G services will happen by March 2024, whereas, Jio 5G will be available for everyone by December 2023.

PM Narendra Modi To Launch 5G On October 1

Prime Minister of India Mr. Narenda Modi will oversee the launch of 5G services in India on October 1 at 10 AM.

The three major telecom operators– Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea will demonstrate one used case each showcasing the potential of 5G technology in India on the lines of AR- VR & AI effectively in our daily lives and industrial use.

Test case 1:

Reliance Jio will connect a teacher from a school in Mumbai with students in three different locations in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha. This will demonstrate how 5G will facilitate education by bringing teachers closer to students, obviating the physical distance between them. It will demonstrate the power of Augmented Reality (AR) on screen and how that is being used to teach children across the country, remotely, without the need of an AR device.

Test case 2:

In the Airtel demo, a girl from Uttar Pradesh will witness a lively and immersive education experience to learn about the solar system with the help of AR-VR Augmented reality-Virtual reality . The girl will share her experience of learning with the PM by appearing on the dais through a hologram.

Test case 3:

The Vodafone Idea test case will demonstrate safety of workers in an under construction tunnel of Delhi Metro through creation of a Digital Twin of the tunnel on the dais. Digital twin will help give safety alerts to workers in real time from a remote location. PM will take a live demo from the dais to monitor the work in real time through utilizing VR and Artificial Intelligence.

The Prime Minister will visit an exhibition and will witness the demonstration of the use of 5G technology in multiple areas. The various use cases that will be demonstrated in front of PM in the exhibition include

·        Precision drone based farming;

·        High Security Routers & AI based Cyber Threat Detection Platform;

·        Automated Guided Vehicles;

·        Ambupod – Smart Ambulance;

·        Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality /Mix Reality in Education and Skill Development; Sewage Monitoring System;

·        Smart-Agri Program;

·        Health diagnostics, among others.

 

5G technology will offer a wide range of benefits to the common people. It will help in providing seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency, and highly reliable communications leading to increased energy efficiency, spectrum efficiency and network efficiency. 5G technology will help in connecting billions of Internet of Things devices, will allow higher quality video services with mobility at high speed, delivery of critical services such as tele-surgery and autonomous cars among others.

5G will help in real time monitoring of disasters, precision agriculture, minimizing the role of humans in dangerous industrial operations such as in deep mines, offshore activities etc.

Unlike existing mobile communication networks, 5G networks will allow tailoring of requirements for each of these different use cases within the same network

 

 

Digital money -Govt backing essential

Bracing for govt-backed digital money

Multiple governments worldwide are counting on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) even as they made no bones about their mistrust of cryptocurrencies. India’s apex bank has already rolled out a beta of its digital currency though a full-fledged rollout of the country’s digital currency is expected in early 2023. 

Though CBDCs can be traded like cryptos, they are not based on public blockchains. They are likely to be on a private blockchain network controlled by central banks or governments, which will give banks a clearer picture of the money flow. China and Nigeria are some countries that have launched their CBDCs. In China, transactions made with the digital yuan (Chinese CBDC) crossed 100 billion yuan (around $14 billion) as of August-end, according to the People’s Bank of China. 

The US is also planning to launch a CBDC, which would be interoperable with CBDCs issued by central banks in other countries. Experts believe that CBDCs can help the Indian government in achieving financial inclusion as it doesn’t require users to own bank accounts. Similarly, it can speed up cross-border payments by reducing the number of intermediaries to process transactions as is the case with the banking system. 

What is UMTS - Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

 

What does UMTS mean?

UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) is a third generation mobile cellular technology for networks based on the GSM standard. 

What is universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS)?

Discussion The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), based on the GSM standards, is a mobile cellular system of third generation that is maintained by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). It specifies a complete network system and the technology described in it is popularly referred as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA). 

What is UMTS migration in Telecom?

UMTS – Universal Mobile Telecommunication System is a 3G migration path for 2G GSM networks. Even though UMTS is based on the access technology WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), it has nothing to do with the other CDMA-based networks IS-95 and CDMA2000.