Feel a bit mixed about promoting use of unlicensed spectrum, if it's commercially exploitable then shouldn't it be a national regulated resource? What other uses are there which will be negated by this chipset being widely deployed, and what RAND exists over other sources to exploit the RF spaces in question?
Maybe the intent is to make it like wifi but it read much more like a telco sell. Or perhaps it's the commoditisation of iot radio layers for manufacturing?
That's why I said feels like a telco sell. If this doesn't privatise the commons and two factories next to each other and the block of flats across the road can also use it, I'm sold. If it's a telco play like picocells were, to move your voice to VoLTE and then VoWiFI but still charge you for sending data over your IP packet budget.. I'm less sure. Telcos might just be a licencing gadget to sell me a unique phone identity.
This is "Wi-Fi using 5G". You can outright buy a home 5G "router" and "join" network from phones. Cellular carriers aren't involved at all.
There are actually the same legal frameworks and products for LTE as well; you can request quotes for an EPC installed on a mini PC and mini eNB in white plastic enclosures with requisite FCC labels. Though, cost and performance were not highly competitive relative to Wi-Fi. Starting from couple thousands of dollars or so.
They say private networks ... they do not say who owns or manages the private networks ... For all private networks could mean is a enterprise grade private network... I would be seriously skeptical about this ... The last part on the link about LWA is pause for thought. This does not look like it is meant for end users.
Getting SIM cards for a private 5G network seems like a pain. eSIM would avoid the need for physical cards on paper, but I wonder if iOS and Android will take eSIMs from a random entity without the cooperation of Apple and Google respectively.
I remember hearing that some conference at some point did its own 4G network with its own SIM cards. They had gotten permission to use licensed spectrum for the duration of the event. Unfortunately, I do not remember which conference. If I did, I would look at what they said about how they got the SIM cards for it.
eSIMs all need to have a chain of trust all the way back to some GSMA gatekeepers. As usual with all kinds of mobile telco stuff, it's never open and really doesn't like people messing around (partly because people messing around might find how much of a broken, insecure and "designed by committee" shit-show most of it is).
Maybe the intent is to make it like wifi but it read much more like a telco sell. Or perhaps it's the commoditisation of iot radio layers for manufacturing?