The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has recently unveiled a dedicated group to advance and monitor the development of 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap). This initiative highlights collaboration among major industry players such as Ericsson, Huawei, Qualcomm, and MediaTek to promote the RedCap ecosystem. The contributions of these companies focus on facilitating network deployments, and the launch of IoT devices and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) equipment in the market.
RedCap technology is a subset of 5G features aimed at devices like wearables and budget-friendly hotspots. It’s designed to offer lower battery consumption, costs, and bandwidth requirements. Requiring a 5G standalone (SA) network to unleash its potential, RedCap provides performance
equivalent to LTE CAT-4 with theoretical maximum speeds reaching up to 150 Mbps. This allows for reduced complexity, cost, and size of 5G devices.
Latest reports from the GSA indicate that as of February 2025, 154 operators in 63 countries are investing in 5G SA. Nonetheless, RedCap adoption rates remain nascent with only 26 operators in 18 countries either investing in or exploring this promising technology.
According to Joe Barrett, president of the GSA, “5G RedCap is still in its initial stages of development and growth, particularly when it comes to compatible devices and chipsets.” Despite this early phase, Barrett is optimistic about RedCap’s growth potential. The technology could bridge the gap in mid-tier IoT solutions, especially as LTE networks become obsolete.
RedCap is set to play an intriguing role in serving specific FWA scenarios due to its cost-effective device capabilities. The newly formed group aims to monitor RedCap networks, feature evolution, and device development. By showcasing RedCap-enabled products on GSA’s platform and its GAMBoD database, industry awareness and adoption could increase.
The group’s founding members like Intel and VIAVI Solutions stand ready to facilitate this transformation. Additionally, the latest RedCap report issued by GSA introduces enhanced RedCap (eRedCap), targeting the expansion of RedCap’s capabilities.
A prediction from Omdia in October 2024 anticipates significant RedCap growth, forecasting nearly one billion connections by 2030 driven by increasing global 5G IoT connections. Omdia’s Alexander Thompson remarks, “5G RedCap was specifically designed for IoT applications, and in just a year since the first module launches, small-scale deployments and trials begin to take shape.”
The outlook for RedCap extends beyond simplifying IoT device interactions. According to Reiner Stuhlfauth, Technology Manager at Rohde & Schwarz’s Wireless Unit, “It is offering the industry completely new services for machine-type communications scenarios by bridging the gap” among varied network and device requirements. An operator deploying RedCap can also take advantage of other 5G core network features like network slicing and enhanced security.
