Live from the Global MBB Forum in Dubai: Marco Zangani, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone Italy (caught in the photo), argued that it is time for carriers to move away from their initial pragmatic approach to 5G deployment and accelerate their revenue-generating strategies with this technology.
Zangani said that after initial trials in 2018, Vodafone chose not to begin its 5G journey with a large-scale rollout covering all operating countries.
Such an approach “was practically impossible given the high level of competition.”
Instead, the company focused primarily on its customers and took action when it saw demand for advanced services.
Vodafone has now deployed 5G in 332 cities across Europe, including roaming in 2019, a standalone network through Vodafone Germany in 2021, and the first hybrid private network in 2022, the first on the continent. It claims a number of things.
With a strong foundation in place, Zangani offers a three-pronged strategy for monetizing next-generation technologies, including delivering fiber-like data speeds, delivering premium services with Massive MIMO, and deploying private networks. did. The management team thinks about this area as follows. You can see actual 5G services and applications. ”
“This is where we look forward to unlocking the true potential of 5G,” he said.
The company highlighted four areas where private networks can be cash cows. factory. health care; and campuses and industrial areas.
He cited automated guided vehicles, connected mobile workers, asset tracking and augmented reality as potential use cases.
Zangani added that private networks will help relieve some of the pressure on the industry, allowing operators to implement key elements of the 5G ecosystem without major additional investments.
He said the next evolution of 5G will likely come through the implementation of multi-service networks that act as a single programmable low-latency infrastructure with standalone and slicing capabilities, along with the delivery of real-time applications. added.
