John Whelan: Business counts cost of delays to full 5G rollout
The Government looks to 5G to help realise its digital transformation ambitions and to anchor Ireland’s position as a prime destination for international businesses.
Where 3G made a market success of the smartphone and changed forever how we use data on our mobile devices, 5G- the fifth generation- is set to revolutionise data use, increasing the scale, scope and speed of how we communicate and do business. But we are behind the curve in Ireland and the telecom operators here are dragging their heels on some technical aspects of the 5G licence rollout.
The Irish telecoms regulator ComReg has called a halt to the time allowed for operators to the raise queries over allocating the 20-year licences for the rollout of 5G, following a period of consultation.
A lot is at stake, as the potential impact across industries could be enormous. However, the roll out across many regions is scheduled to take up to three years, with the final regions due to be covered in seven years. Hence, ComReg is anxious that no more delays affect the execution of the 5G licences allocation first announced in mid-2022.
To press home its case, ComReg in recent High Court proceedings, released reports from experts which indicated the cost of delays were in the region of €250m every quarter, or €2bn over two years.
Those sums indicate the lost opportunity in supporting increased mobile data traffic, industry productivity losses, as well as energy efficiency losses.
The Government was emerging from under the bailout cloud when the last major assignment of licences was awarded, in 2012.
At the time it was grateful for the €850m in upfront and annual fees the mobile operators paid for 15-year licences. The auction of the latest 5G licences was set to bring in around €448m, but came with tougher conditions.
The old licences came generally unencumbered with low coverage targets and a soft rollout timeframe. It is no wonder that mobile operators have been under constant criticism about poor rural coverage.
In the upcoming 5G spectrum assignments, ComReg has recognised the need to deliver 95% coverage of the population, with early geographical coverage of IDA business parks, hospitals, transport hubs, and cities.
The latest spectrum of 5G licences will make it easier for telecom operators to service rural areas, where low population density traditionally made for tough return on investment.
Chief executives of Imagine, Eir, Three Ireland and Vodafone Ireland, who have won the main 5G licences, will no doubt see the opportunity to sell a new range of products and services, however, they will have to undertake massive investment in upgrading the infrastructure of both wireline and wireless networks if the licence technical conditions laid down by ComReg are to be achieved.
Not unexpectedly, there has been substantial challenges to the technical conditions by the many telecom operators, both from those who won the licence auction and those who did not.
There has been a pressure on telecom operators in Ireland to offer the full spectrum of support services. During covid, ComReg rushed out a limited and temporary range of 5G licences because of people working from home, which could not be catered for by fixed-line broadband.
However, growth over the last three years has been more rapid, but complaints have also sharply from subscribers stuck on old 4G devices.
The full radio frequency spectrum in the new licences is expected to resolve these issues, and will also meet the rising demands of augmented reality apps, video calling, and smart home tech to control heating, lighting, refrigeration and security.
Early adopters such as Glanbia which installed an indoor 5G network to increase manufacturing efficiency of its cheese plant in Ballyragget, point to the benefits.
The Government will look to 5G to help realise its digital transformation ambitions and to anchor Ireland’s position as a prime destination for international businesses.
The EU in pushing its Digital Decade objectives and has been pressing Ireland to complete its full 5G spectrum rollout.
It is time for the telecoms operators to stop squabbling on technicalities.
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