During the “Is Poland ready for 5G?” roundtable there was no shortage of vehement exchanges: “If I may violate the convention, I have a question for the Minister. Could you give us more details on the date of the bill’s submission to the Council of Ministers and voting on it in the Sejm, as well as the date the ‘5G auction’?,” asked Adam Kmieć, Head of Network Team at Samsung Electronics. Minister Marek Zagórski provided hard facts.
The roundtable was organised by the Digital Poland Association, and although the question above seems simple, during the two hour debate a lot of ideas were given on how to implement 5G in Poland. The benefits are obvious in basically every aspect of life, but industry is where this technology can be especially revolutionary. Poland may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this revolution. This was pointed out by Martin Mellor, CEO of Ericsson Poland: “According to our recent study 5G Action Review for Europe, when it comes to smart industry and logistics, Poland is the second beneficiary of changes across Europe. Second in all of Europe, just after Germany. As an industrial country, Poland has a lot to gain.”
It’s worth noting that the introduction of 5G will bring changes in many different areas. The automation of processes and the development of robotics also means a reduction in CO2 emissions. The widespread use of autonomous cars will drastically reduce road accidents. The increased use of the Internet of Things will translate into development of smart cities, which in turn will provide societies with even more security and free time. In energy industry, smart grids and metering systems will save X of energy. The fruits of the revolution will be many, only how to start it?
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Poland’s plan is unique compared to other countries, because 5G is to be built in the public-private partnership model here. A national wholesale operator and four commercial operators will work together to create a common infrastructure, rather than compete with one other. This solution can be easily illustrated.
In most cases, teleoperators will be building their networks and the more there are, the more complicated the issue becomes. If we are to illustrate this situation as a sport event, we would present it as competing in a running track. Each of the teleoperators had bought their own lane and everyone is running as fast as they can to be first, to be better, faster, and have more range. However, if one of the operators stumbles and falls off their lane, a sizeable group of Internet users loses their connection. This operator cannot just switch to another lane, because it is occupied by another entity.
However, in the Polish concept teleoperators also run a running track, but… they do not have their own lanes. The running track belongs to a wholesale operator, all the operators run together in a tight group, and if one of them stumbles, they have several “friends” to help them to get back on their feet. And customers – in this case, Internet users – do not have to worry about the quality of service, because in fact all teleoperators “are running” for a common result.
In practice, it means sharing the infrastructure of a common network, which can bring many benefits. “For consumers, it means network coverage across the whole country. For the state – the creation of a special wireless communication network for rescue services, uniformed services and critical infrastructure, and for each operator – savings of up to 50% on CAPEX and OPEX,” says CEO of EXATEL, Nikodem Bończa Tomaszewski.
An example of how it can work is the Łódź Special Economic Zone, where 5G is being implemented and is already used by some of the companies located there. 5G-based business solutions are being tested there under real factory conditions. At the end of the year, we will see the results of such implementation. Without the private-public partnership, the Zone couldn’t even be completed. “The infrastructure was built by Orange. Ericsson offered support in terms of knowledge transfer and provided equipment during the Zone construction. Polkomtel is our business partner – a technology recipient cooperating with start-ups on solutions that will be commercialised soon. We were also helped by Play, we cooperated with Technical University of Łódź, and many other entrepreneurs,” said Agnieszka Sygitowicz, president of the Łódź Special Economic Zone.
Does this show that it is possible and all we need to do is just scale the idea? CEO of EXATEL points out that 5G should not be implemented quickly, but rather intelligently. According to him, one of the Polish problems is weak 5G device industry. “The point is not to modernise in the model of the third world countries which simply import the whole technology without qualifications to implement, maintain or develop it,” said Bończa Tomaszewski.
His remark was quickly countered by Jarosław Szymczuk, the Managing Director of IBM Polska: “The desire to include the maximum number of Polish companies calls for creating innovation centres where 5G solutions can be tested. We need more, not just that one zone in Łódź. Such centres should be established in every major industrial region in Poland. We are, of course, interested in creating such a large ecosystem. For our part, we see a great deal of development potential by working together on the issue, in other words – by opening it up as much as possible. Open RAN is very important here,” said Szymczuk and drew attention to another important issue.
The Open RAN concept means making software independent from its vendors. It’s not about having the hardware and software to connect to the Internet provided by a single vendor that has their entire system locked down. When this happens, equipment failure means it needs to be repaired or replaced, which can take days. The Open RAN concept, on the other hand, aims to virtualise the network – software is to be the key to its operation, hardware is to be secondary. What’s more – this software is supposed to be open. “In these situations, a repair or update takes seconds, not weeks. Open ecosystems are seriously considered by leading teleoperators in Poland. This is a great opportunity to arrange certain issues, and not for a year or so, but for the next 20-30 years and more,” said Sławomir Pietrzyk, President of IS-Wireless.
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The key question is: does the slow and steady really win the race? “On the one hand, we have hardware manufacturers who would like to deploy and sell their equipment as quickly as possible. On the other hand, we have four teleoperators who would like to have a guarantee of a smooth operation on these networks. Then again, we have the state and the area of defence – here it is necessary to guarantee an appropriate level of network security, and at the same time to find a perfect solution for the mobile network and special communication,” said Nikodem Bończa Tomaszewski from EXATEL
and explained the role of his company: “We want to be a bridge between the public and private sectors. We want to create a symmetrical field of cooperation between commercial operators and the state.”
Looking at the Open RAN concept and the consensus around it and the private-public partnership, these interests seem to be quite coherent. All what is left is to wait for the National Cyber Security System Act and the ‘5G auction’. They are connected – albeit informally – to the selection of those who will comply with Polish safety requirements among others taking part in the auction.
This was assured by the minister at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and the government’s proxy for cybersecurity, Marek Zagórski. “The Council of Ministers should adopt the bill in March, and before the auction the president of the Office of Electronic Communications will commence public consultation. At that time, the law will be notified in the European Commission, which usually takes about three months. It will then be forwarded to the Polish Parliament. Once the consultation is over, the auction can begin. If all these processes run simultaneously, I think that we will grant licences for the 700 MHz frequency this year,” concluded Zagórski.
