移動網絡技術新競賽 向5G時代進軍
GUILDFORD, England — On the outskirts of this sleepy commuter town just south of London, plans are underway to build the fastest cellphone network in the world.
英格蘭吉爾福德——在這座倫敦南緣的寧靜通勤小鎮的郊區，打造世界上最快的手機網絡的計劃正在進行中。
The work is being done at the University of Surrey, where a leafy campus is dotted with rundown Brutalist-style buildings. Here, researchers and some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Samsung and Fujitsu, are collaborating to offer mobile Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than anything now available.
這項工作在薩里大學(University of Surrey)展開。它那濃蔭密佈的校園裏，點綴着一些粗野主義風格的老舊建築。在這裏，研究人員和包括三星(Samsung)、富士通(Fujitsu)在內的世界上最大的一些科技公司，正在合作研發一種新的手機網絡，其速度會比現有的所有手機網絡快上百倍。
Their work on so-called fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless technology is set to be completed in early 2018 and would, for example, let students download entire movies to smartphones or tablets in less than five seconds, compared with as much as eight minutes with current fourth-generation, or 4G, technology. Companies also could connect millions of devices — including smartwatches and tiny sensors on home appliances — to the new cellphone network, and automakers could potentially test driverless cars around the suburban campus.
他們進行的有關第五代無線技術——或稱爲5G——的研發工作，計劃於2018年初完成。它將能讓學生們在五秒鐘內將整部影片下載到智能手機或平板電腦上，而用目前的第四代——即4G——網絡下載一部影片，則需要八分鐘。企業可以將包括智能手錶、家用電器上的微型傳感器在內的無數種設備與新一代手機網絡相連，汽車廠商或許也可以在這座位於郊區的大學校園裏測試無人駕駛車。
“A lot of the technology already works in a laboratory environment,” said Rahim Tafazolli, director of the university’s research center that oversees the 5G project, which includes almost 70 powerful radio antennas around the two-square-mile campus. “Now, we have to prove it works in real life.”
“有很多技術已經可以在實驗室環境下實現，”薩里大學5G項目研究中心的主任拉希姆·塔法佐利(Rahim Tafazolli)說。這個項目在面積2平方英里的校園各處佈置了將近70個功率強大的無線電天線。“現在，我們必須證明它在現實生活中也一樣有效。”
The work by Dr. Tafazolli and his team puts them at the heart of a heated race. Fueled by people’s insatiable appetite for accessing videos, social media and other entertainment on their mobile devices, many of the world’s largest carriers, like AT&T and NTT DoCoMo of Japan, are rushing to be the first to offer customers this next-generation ultrafast wireless technology.
塔法佐利及其團隊的工作，讓他們處在了一場激烈競賽的中心。人們對接入視頻、社交媒體和其他娛樂內容的需求巨大。受其鼓舞，全球很多排名靠前的運營商，包括AT&T和日本的NTT都科摩(NTT DoCoMo)，都急於成爲第一家向顧客提供下一代超快無線技術的公司。
The competition has led to research worth billions of dollars from telecommunications equipment makers like Ericsson of Sweden and Huawei of China, which are hoping to secure lucrative contracts to upgrade the mobile Internet infrastructure of operators like AT&T from the United States and China Mobile in Asia. Those plans have become even faster paced as tech giants including Google consider their own ambitions for the latest, and fastest, high-speed Internet.
這場競爭促使瑞典愛立信(Ericsson)和中國華爲等電信設備生產商投入數十億美元進行研發。它們希望拿到AT&T和中國移動等亞洲運營商的移動互聯網基礎設施升級訂單，獲取豐厚利潤。隨着包括谷歌(Google)在內的科技巨頭開始考慮自己在最新、最快的高速互聯網領域的宏圖，這些計劃的進展速度變得更快了。
“Everyone is rushing to demonstrate they are a leading player for 5G,” said Bengt Nordstrom, co-founder of Northstream, a telecom consulting firm, in Stockholm.
“人人都急着想證明自己是5G的領導者，”斯德哥爾摩電信行業諮詢公司Northstream聯合創始人本特·努德斯特倫(Bengt Nordstrom)說。
The efforts around 5G will be on display at Mobile World Congress, a four-day tech and telecom event in Barcelona that begins on Monday. Most of the world’s largest operators and device makers like Samsung are expected to announce their latest wireless technology, including smartphones, wearable products and digital applications at the trade show.
週一，科技和電信業盛事世界移動通信大會(Mobile World Congress)將在巴塞羅那開幕。圍繞5G展開的行動將在爲期四天的大會上亮相。全球最大的運營商及三星這樣的設備生產商中，預計大部分都會在這場行業大會上宣佈自己最新的無線技術，包括智能手機、可穿戴產品和數字應用。
Not to be outdone, telecom manufacturers also have announced glitzy demonstrations — including driverless cars, remote-controlled drones and autonomous robots balancing balls on tablets — to showcase their 5G credibility. The need to persuade carriers to buy the latest wireless technology has become ever more important as operators consider cutting investment plans in the face of a global economic downturn.
爲了不被甩在身後，電信製造商也推出了一些耀眼的產品展示，包括無人駕駛車、遙控無人機和能在平板電腦上讓幾個球保持平衡的自主機器人，以展示自己的5G實力。在面臨全球經濟下行的運營商考慮削減投資計劃之際，電信製造商需要說服它們，讓它們相信最新的無線技術現在具有空前的重要性。
“If we miss the chance to make our networks relevant, it will be a disaster,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, Ericsson’s chief technology officer. “The billion-dollar question is what will a 5G network look like?”
“如果錯過讓我們的網絡參與進來的機會，就是一場災難，”愛立信首席技術官艾華信(Ulf Ewaldsson)說。“這裏面一個最重要的問題是，5G網絡會是什麼樣子？”
Despite companies’ efforts to outspend each other, that question remains unanswered.
儘管各公司的投資力度一個更勝一個，但這個問題依然沒有答案。
A global standard for 5G wireless technology will not be finished before 2019, at the earliest. Companies worldwide must agree on how their networks talk to each other, so users’ mobile connections do not become patchy when traveling overseas. That involves lengthy negotiations over what type of radio waves the new technology should use, among other complicated global agreements, which can take years.
5G無線技術的全球標準至少要到2019年才能完成。世界範圍內的公司必須就彼此的網絡之間如何銜接溝通達成一致，這樣用戶在國外時，他們的移動通訊纔不會變得時好時壞。這就涉及新技術應該使用何種無線電波，以及其他複雜的全球協議進行漫長的談判。這個過程可能要花數年時間。
As a result, carriers, telecom equipment makers and tech companies are lobbying global-standard bodies and national lawmakers to promote their own technologies over rivals’, according to industry executives and telecom analysts. Because of this jockeying, a widespread rollout of 5G networks is not expected until well into the next decade.
因此，據行業高管和電信業分析人士稱，運營商、電信設備生產商和科技公司正在遊說制定全球標準的機構和各國議員，告訴他們自己的技術比對手的好。因爲存在這種爭奪，5G網絡的廣泛鋪開預計要等到下一個10年。
Some analysts question why carriers are focusing on the next generation of wireless technology when many parts of the world, particularly in emerging markets, still suffer from achingly slow mobile Internet access. And industry experts say mobile Internet speeds in much of the developed world, especially in places like South Korea, where connections are often comparable to traditional broadband, already meet people’s needs.
一些分析人士質疑，爲什麼在世界上很多地方，特別是在新興市場的移動互聯網接入還極其緩慢時，運營商卻把焦點放在了下一代無線技術上。行業專家稱，在很多發達國家，特別是在連接速度通常堪比傳統寬帶的韓國等地，移動互聯網速度已經能滿足人們的需求了。
“A lot of this is about carriers and equipment makers looking for new ways to make money,” said Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester Research in Paris. “Consumers shouldn’t expect great things until after 2020.”
“這在很大程度上是因爲運營商和設備生產商在尋找賺錢的新途徑，”弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester Research)駐巴黎的分析師湯瑪斯·赫森(Thomas Husson)說。“2020年之前，消費者不應該期待有什麼偉大的技術出現。”
These challenges have not stopped companies from staking a claim in hopes of being at the forefront of 5G.
這些挑戰沒能阻止各家公司紛紛押注，以期能讓自己身處5G市場的前沿。
That is particularly true ahead of major global sporting events like the Olympics and the World Cup, at which carriers and national governments want to promote their technological know-how. At the 2018 World Cup, which will be held in Russia, for instance, the local operators MegaFon and MTS are expected to test 5G-style services, including ultrafast mobile Internet, even without global standards in place.
在奧林匹克運動會和世界盃等全球大型體育賽事到來之前尤其如此，運營商和各國政府都想在這些賽事上宣傳自己的技術能力。比如，在將於俄羅斯舉行的2018年世界盃上，當地運營商MegaFon和MTS計劃推出包括超快移動互聯網在內的5G類服務，儘管相關的全球標準還未確立。
The Korean mobile operator KT also plans to offer its own version of 5G technology at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and NTT DoCoMo has said it will have similar trials ready for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
韓國移動運營商KT也計劃在韓國平昌舉辦的2018年冬季奧運會上提供自家版本的5G技術，而日本電信公司NTT DoCoMo則表示，它也會做好準備，在2020年於東京舉辦的夏季奧運會上進行類似的嘗試。
“The only way of learning is by doing,” said Mats Svardh, head of networks at the Scandinavian carrier TeliaSonera, which will test its own 5G technology in both Stockholm and Tallinn, Estonia, in 2018. “It’s about putting pressure on ourselves to move forward with specifics, not just theories.”
“學習的唯一方式就是上手做，”北歐電信運營商TeliaSonera的網絡業務負責人馬茨·斯韋德(Mats Svardh)說。該公司將於2018年在斯德哥爾摩和愛沙尼亞的塔林兩地測試其5G技術。“這其實是給我們自己施壓，以便在一些具體的問題上取得進展，而不只是在理論上。”
United States carriers have also jumped on the 5G bandwagon, partly to offer people new services as current mobile speeds have become relatively interchangeable between major operators nationwide.
美國運營商也加入了這場5G風潮，部分原因是想給人們提供新服務，因爲美國幾家主要運營商目前提供的移動網絡的網速已經差別不大，可以互相替代。
Last year, Verizon Wireless announced that it would start testing new wireless technology in 2016 in order to offer new services, including potentially ultrafast mobile Internet, sometime next year. Last month, AT&T countered with its own tests — expected to start in Austin, Tex., by the end of 2016 — that could offer mobile speeds roughly 100 times faster than its current offering.“We will be ready when it’s ready,” said John Donovan, AT&T’s chief strategy officer, who added that traditional rivals like Verizon and new arrivals like Google could eventually compete to offer 5G services. “Everywhere you don’t solve a problem, someone else might step in.”
去年，威瑞森無線(Verizon Wireless)宣佈，它將在2016年開始測試新的無線技術，以便在明年某個時候提供可能包括超快移動互聯網在內的新服務。上個月，作爲反擊，AT&T也提出，自己計劃於2016年底在德克薩斯州奧斯丁開始進行測試，有望提供比現在的網速快大約100倍的移動網絡。“等它好的時候，我們就會一切就緒，”AT&T首席戰略官約翰·多諾萬(John Donovan)說。他還表示，威瑞森這樣的傳統競爭對手和谷歌這樣的新對手，最終都有可能參與5G服務的競爭。“不管是在哪個領域，只要有個問題你不解決，別人可能就會進來做。”
For Dr. Tafazolli, of the University of Surrey, whose team started working on 5G in late 2011, these battles have led to an increasing number of companies offering support — including the use of high-speed computer servers, costly radio antennas and millions of dollars of financing to research and build the next-generation wireless network on his college campus, he said. Their primary goal: to test their latest technology in a real-world setting.
薩里大學的塔法佐利自2011年末開始帶領團隊進行5G技術研發。他表示，這些競爭促使越來越多的企業爲他們提供支持，包括高速服務器、價格昂貴的無線電天線，以及大把的資金，讓他們可以在這所大學校園裏研究和打造下一代無線網絡。他們目前的首要目標是：在真實場景裏測試他們的最新技術。
“In the race to 5G, everyone wants to be first,” he said.
“在5G技術這場比賽中，每個人都想拔得頭籌，”他說。
