Standard for distribution of media content
5G Broadcast (5GB), officially known as LTE-based 5G Terrestrial Broadcast, is a system for the distribution of television and other broadcast media content via terrestrial radio broadcast networks based on downlink-only LTE technology.[1][2]
5G Broadcast focuses mainly on mobile use cases like smartphones and in-car radio. It does not require the use of a SIM card or cellular subscription, but only a device like a smartphone capable of receiving 5G Broadcast signals, thus bypassing telecommunication and cellular operators entirely.[3][4] A stated advantage has been the ability to reduce load off mobile networks during large live broadcasts, and not requiring an internet connection.[5] In a broadcast mode, data can be sent to multiple receivers at once (point-to-multipoint) as opposed to point-to-point.[6]
The technology has been tested in numerous countries for a number of years, and has been tipped in Europe as the potential future for digital terrestrial television, which currently are mainly based on the DVB-T2 standard.[7] Public broadcasters of France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Austria have signed a cooperation pact in 2023 and have stated the use of the UHF 470–694 MHz frequency band to be used for 5G Broadcast.[8]
In September 2023 the specs of the standard was updated and published by the 3GPP organisation. It started being tested by some low-power television stations in the USA[9] and also in Spain by UHD.[10] In Germany, 5G Broadcast has been trialed and in May 2024 another pilot project is set to begin in the city of Halle.[11] It is separate from the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard which is also being rolled out.[12] In France, a trial is operated by TDF since the Paris 2024 Olympic games.
Comparison with ATSC 3.0
In comparison with ATSC 3.0, the "NextGenTV" IP-based broadcasting standard being introduced in the USA, 5G Broadcast has been criticised for lower bandwidth efficiency, and the lack of a future-proofing "bootstrap" signal to enable the introduction of new physical-level modulation profiles. However, 5G Broadcast was seen as having the advantage in most other aspects of performance.[13]
References
