- Thank you to CTIA for the invitation
to speak with you today.
It's a pleasure to be participating
in the 5G Summit this year.
I want to acknowledge the many policy makers
and those of you who are advocates
for the wireless industry,
as well as members of CTIA and the CTIA board.
We value the critical work you do every day to enable
and support the broad,
rapid rollout of 5G in the United States.
And to help make this incredible technology
available to everyone.
I wish we could all be together in person.
I know many continue to deal with the impact
of the pandemic and I sincerely hope
we can overcome it soon.
Today, it is clear that connectivity is essential.
for healthcare, for education and so much more.
Over the past 18 months, the ability to work remotely,
the broad adoption of video telephony and telepresence,
and the transitioned to a cloud-based economy has reinforced
the need for 5G to provide the performance
and capacity necessary to support massive connectivity
and data growth over the next decade and beyond.
The 5G opportunity is part of a bigger global trend
where everyone and everything
can be intelligently connected.
It has been driven by the convergence
of ultra fast 5G connectivity,
high-performance efficient computing and AI technologies
driving the massive growth of the cloud.
This is fueling the emergence
of the connected intelligent edge
where billions of smart connected devices
will be deployed and have a significant impact
across the industries.
5G has also given AI scale and purpose.
The combination of 5G, AI and the cloud will serve
as a powerful catalyst for innovation
and economic growth around the globe.
Over the course of the pandemic,
we've seen industries and enterprises accelerate
their digital transformation efforts
and while a wireless has played an important role to date.
5G is essential to the digital future,
enabling new business models, new services
and new revenue streams.
And the economic impact of 5G will be significant.
A study, we commissioned with Accenture,
projects that between 2021 and 2025, 5G
could add up to 16 million jobs
across all sectors of the United States economy
and contribute $1.5 trillion to United States GDP.
That's more than the annual GDP of 94%
of the world's economies.
By investing in 5G, the United States
can create significant economic opportunities domestically
while maintaining its position
in the tech sector globally.
Continued US investment in 5G
will not only help create a future
with strong and competitive economic growth,
but ensure a more resilient society.
5G can do a lot for people, for industries
and for economic growth, but it's most impactful
when we take full advantage of its capabilities.
As the FCC has recognized from the outset,
5G is built for all types of spectrum:
existing lower bands and sub-6 gigahertz
provide wide area coverage for service continuity.
5G in sub-6 gigahertz mid-bands
provides additional capacity and bandwidth
and 5G millimeter wave provides multi-gigabit data rates,
massive capacity in intrinsically low-latency
for dense urban spots, fixed wireless access
and most important, new enterprise
and industrial applications.
5G millimeter wave shouldn't be seen as optional.
It is required to realize the full potential of 5G.
In the United States,
operators continue to expand millimeter wave coverage
with Verizon expected to double the number of cell sites
with millimeter wave to 30,000 by the end of 2021.
Millimeter wave is already going global
with commercial networks in Italy,
Japan, Singapore and Australia, with more to come.
And millimeter wave deployments
are cost-effective with analysts data revealing
that in places where capacity needs are high
a system with millimeter wave and mid-band spectrum
has a lower total cost of ownership
that mid band alone with savings of up to 35%.
In terms of performance,
5G millimeter wave speeds
are breaking new barriers for wireless.
Data from Ookla revealed that millimeter wave speeds
are 16 times faster than 5G sub-6 gigahertz
and an incredible 38 times faster than LTE.
In the past, these speeds could only be achieved with fiber.
In addition to their impact on experiences and industries,
5G and millimeter wave will also serve as a powerful tool
for addressing the broadband gap,
which has impacted education, businesses of all sizes
and more especially in rural communities,
5G millimeter wave fixed wireless access
is bringing high-speed connectivity to schools, libraries,
and homes that lack access to broadband services.
It provides a cost-effective last mile technology
that can finally be used by our industry
to augment fiber in underserved communities,
extending the benefits of a connected economy.
And government programs
such as the Emergency Connectivity Fund
for K through 12 students,
Emergency Broadband Benefit for low-income households,
and the recently passed infrastructure bill
will further improve access to 5G services and devices.
I was pleased to hear that the first round
of applications for the Emergency Connectivity Fund
will provide students and libraries with access
to more than 9 million devices
and wireless service benefiting 5 million households.
It should be no surprise
that 5G millimeter wave fixed wireless
provides robust performance
during a recent collaboration with US Cellular and Nokia,
we achieved a one gigabit per second
fixed wireless connection
at a distance of more than six miles, a world record.
And just as important, 5G millimeter wave fixed wireless
is cost effective for this application.
Based on industry research,
a combination of 5G millimeter wave and sub-6 spectrum
allows operators in rural America
to provide fixed internet access
at a total cost savings of up to 40%
compared to using sub-6 gigahertz by itself.
Qualcomm is seeing significant growth
of 5G fixed wireless access
in the United States and will continue to work
to drive further expansion of these networks.
5G private networks are another important area of innovation
that will help accelerate digital transformation.
These networks will be deployed by a wide range of
industries in places where high reliability,
security, capacity and untethered performance is needed.
Including ports, warehouses, oil refineries,
manufacturing and industrial facilities
and the future workplace,
and even secure military installations.
For the factory of the future,
the evolution to Industry 4.0 will involve
highly interconnected systems requiring ultra reliable,
low-latency, wireless communications
and power-efficient edge compute for analytics.
5G private networks will provide
the reliability, scalability,
and performance required in these demanding environments.
Mobile operators have an opportunity
to leverage their expertise in licensed spectrum,
including millimeter wave,
to build reliable 5G private networks,
which can augmented with shared on unlicensed spectrum
for even higher capacity and performance.
This is an exciting area,
and innovation will only accelerate in the coming months
as Release 16 gains momentum.
While we're accelerating the commercialization
of 5G across regions,
we continue to invest significantly in R&D
to drive the evolution of the 5G roadmap
with Release 17 and into 5G-Advanced,
which starts with Release 18.
Building upon the 5G technology foundation
established with Release 15 and 16,
these new releases will bring enhanced capabilities
and features that it will enable
entirely new industries,
support next-generation services and business models
and even more use cases and experiences.
Some of the 5G expansion areas we're really excited about
include in NR-Lights,
which is a scaled down version of 5G
NR standard designed for lower complexity devices,
such as sensors and wearables.
Improved end-to-end 5G system performance and optimizations
for 5G boundless mixed reality experiences,
including a new edge processing framework.
And millimeter wave repeaters
to efficiently expand millimeter wave coverage
and provide even greater deployment flexibility.
The possibilities with the 5G roadmap are truly limitless.
Earlier, I spoke about the connected, intelligent edge,
and they impact it'll have
across industries and experiences.
But in order to support
its continued growth and densification,
as well as new deployment models that enable industrial
transformation, the network needs to evolve.
It needs to be designed like the cloud and for the cloud
with architectures that are scalable, secure and adaptable
and with equipment that is broadly available off the shelf.
It also needs to provide high-performance
and power efficiency both indoors and outdoors
and support public and private networks.
These needs are driving a shift to more virtualized,
modular and interoperable cellular infrastructure
or infrastructure 2.0.
With secure cellular technology
from a diverse set of vendors,
the modern 5G network will provide superior performance
and greater energy efficiency.
Our high-performance 5G RAN Platforms are designed
to power fully-virtual cloud-native infrastructure
that is scaled from high-capacity micro cells
to enterprise-grade small cells.
There are also designed
to provide integrated support for Release 16.
As well as 5G millimeter wave in sub-6 gigahertz spectrum
across all key global bands
and are compatible with vRAN
and hardware accelerated virtualization.
Innovative products like
the Qualcomm 5G DU X100 Accelerator Card
can turn a data center into a high-performance hub
for energy efficient 5G base stations.
We're excited to be working across the industry
to enhance 5G infrastructure
and support the evolution of this vital technology,
making it a powerful platform for innovation.
As the leader in 5G,
Qualcomm continues to work with the ecosystem
to set the pace of innovation in wireless.
Our leadership comes not only
from our technology investments,
but from our ability to partner with companies
across industries to drive innovation.
We remain committed to collaborating
with and enabling this great 5G ecosystem.
We're also committed to collaborating
with our government partners
so we can position the US economy for leadership,
even greater resilience and continued growth.
I look forward to innovating with you
over the next decade with 5G. Thank you.