While 5G may have had a rocky early start, the mobile communications platform still has the potential to bring significant benefits to organizations, especially those in sectors such as manufacturing and maritime.
In fact, the mobile industry is a major economic growth driver for regions such as Asia-Pacific, with South Korea, China and Japan leading the world in deploying 5G networks, according to the GSMA. The industry group said Asia-Pacific is on track to become the world’s largest 5G market.
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Last year, mobile technology and services added $810 billion in economic value to regional economies, and this amount is projected to reach nearly $1 trillion by the end of 2030. The GSMA said the rollout of 5G will further expand the impact of mobile networks on businesses and consumers.
The association predicted in February that global 5G connections are expected to double over the next two years, with new network deployments in more than 30 countries this year alone. At least 15 of these will be 5G standalone networks. We are seeing significant growth momentum in India in particular, with four networks expected to be deployed and supporting an additional 145 million users by the end of 2025.
Additionally, while 5G accounted for just 4% of mobile connections in Asia-Pacific last year, this is expected to grow tenfold to account for 41% of mobile connections in the region by 2030. GMSA predicts that this will happen. 5G is expected to have an impact on productivity and revenue, and is expected to add more than $133 billion to the Asia-Pacific economy in 2030.
By the end of 2030, the region will have approximately 1.4 billion 5G connections, driven by falling 5G device prices, network expansion in several markets, and concerted efforts by governments to integrate mobile technology. accelerates.
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“As 5G matures and becomes more versatile, it is transforming many processes across the economy,” the GSMA said in a September report. “With the deployment of private 5G networks, standalone 5G, and cloud-native core networks, carriers can provide organizations with the highly reliable connectivity they need to automate critical operations.”
He added that edge computing is also being used to reduce latency and support real-time use of image recognition and other applications that leverage artificial intelligence (AI).
While still in its early stages, early deployments of 5G highlight the platform’s potential to deliver flexible, high-speed connectivity across industry use cases, delivering tangible benefits to businesses and consumers, the GSMA said. Ta.
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The guarantee comes after SK Telecom released a white paper on 6G in August that included lessons learned from 5G deployment. SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile phone company, became the first in the world to launch a commercial 5G network alongside its peers in the domestic market in 2019. The company’s standalone network went live in 2021.
The carrier noted in a white paper that most of the often-cited use cases that 5G is touted as enabling have “failed to live up to expectations.” These use cases include autonomous driving, urban air mobility (UAM), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), holograms, and digital twins.
The report notes that remote surgery, ultra-high-definition video streaming and autonomous driving are among the services being touted alongside 5G, but these have yet to be successfully deployed. SK Telecom cites multiple issues as key barriers to adoption, including low or lack of market demand, device form factor constraints, device immaturity, and regulatory and policy challenges.
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Also, due to its frequency characteristics, 5G required more base stations compared to LTE to achieve nationwide network coverage. This meant additional effort in terms of cost and time, and was not consistent with customer expectations for the same level of coverage as LTE.
“I should have had a more objective perspective. For example, can 5G technology alone change the future? Is the entire environment that makes up the service in place? If I did that, I would have thought that the public’s opinion of 5G would be better. The gap between expectations and reality should be closed.”The scale was large,” SK Telecom said.
Despite some early disappointments, it wasn’t a failure.
Although it may not have lived up to early expectations, 5G should not be seen as a failure, Julian Gorman, head of Asia Pacific at the GSMA, told ZDNET.
Gorman noted that SK Telecom’s report presents a “good baseline” for the industry, noting that technology pioneers experience more disappointment than companies that introduce technology after the market has had time to mature. He said it was highly likely. For example, early mobile devices may have inferior user experience and functionality compared to devices released at a later stage.
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He added that being first to market is also costly, forcing early adopters to spot holes and work around them.
He said as networks mature and devices improve, 5G users are likely to find their 4G experience pales in comparison.
Nokia’s head of Singapore, Ngiam Min Kin, also noted that there is a general openness and knowledge about 5G, especially among businesses, recognizing the huge difference the network can make.
Ngiam said in an interview that the organization sees 5G as a key part of its digital transformation efforts and a catalyst for new business models. Connectivity is also a key part of Singapore’s digital connectivity blueprint, which puts the country in a good position to move up the 5G value chain.
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However, now that the underlying architecture and network is in place, the rest of the ecosystem needs to keep pace. Specifically, devices such as smart home appliances are lagging behind and still running on older Wi-Fi technology or 4G, he said, adding that this is hindering the widespread adoption of 5G.
He emphasized the need for IoT (Internet of Things) devices designed to allow manufacturers to support 5G as 4G technology catches up.
Industry standards, including business and operational processes, must also be updated so that applications can run seamlessly within a 5G environment. If that requires a lot of effort, it could hinder adoption, he said.
However, industries with clear 5G use cases are promising for adoption. In Singapore Maritime, for example, the introduction of 5G has improved operational efficiency, Gorman said.
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GSMA noted in the report that Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine has deployed an AR/VR smart eyewear solution running on M1’s 5G standalone network to conduct shipyard inspections. This deployment is expected to reduce the manual time required for inspections by 50% from 16,000 to 8,000 hours each year.
Gorman cited manufacturing as another sector that could greatly benefit from 5G. For example, Thai auto parts maker Somboon Advance’s technology uses 5G to power robots and monitor camshaft production lines, increasing productivity by a factor of 1.25.
The mobile network also supports manufacturers’ automated guided vehicles (AGVs), which are used to transport goods and materials across the factory floor. Materials delivered to warehouses by AGVs are now automatically stored by 5G-enabled systems. These 5G-enabled applications have increased the Somboon factory’s revenue by 60% and reduced operating costs by 30%.
SK Telecom also pointed to some bright spots in its deployment, including a sharp increase in consumer mobile data usage and LTE frequencies reaching saturation point.
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The South Korean telecommunications company said it was able to provide the service by securing new 5G frequencies and building a nationwide network. The cost per GB on the network will be more than 70% cheaper compared to his LTE, and 5G subscribers should use at least 50% more data than his LTE consumers.
SK Telecom added that it is applying what it has learned from 5G deployment to solve technical and economic issues and provide customers with “stable service quality.”
“Businesses in Asia-Pacific are taking advantage of the increasingly sophisticated capabilities of 5G networks for an extremely wide range of use cases,” the GSMA said. “Combined with other technologies such as edge computing and AI, public and private 5G networks are now delivering very tangible benefits for businesses, employees, and consumers.”
