The strategic approach we recommend to take full advantage of 5G breakthroughs
For the first time in the mobile technology history, industrial stakeholders are given a seat at the decision table, a seat that was monopolized until now by carriers and vendors. This is one of the fundamental orientations of 5G, as it shifts the focus from high-speeds-only needs for the end-customers, to support new emerging applications in manufacturing, healthcare, media, transportation, and public services.
2019 has seen the first trials and deployments within some major cities. However, the adoption of 5G is still limited and will be progressive within the next five years. Throughout our presence at major vendors and carriers events, and through constant dialog with our clients, here are the three main challenges for companies to address before benefiting from the full potential of 5G :
1. Prove the need of 5G
Across industries, some use cases have already been deployed using current and affordable mediums such as Wi-Fi, 2G/3G/4G, LPWAN … It can be argued that for some applications the quality of service is not as optimal as expected, but investments into the infrastructure of such connectivity solutions and its deployment represent a restraint to not consider the move to 5G.
It is up to the IT department to challenge their businesses about the unforeseen future needs in a top-down approach. The best is to start from the current client experience, to analyse future and current market trends (opportunities and threats), only after thinking about the right technologies to deploy. For example, specific applications require tens of Gigabit connectivity, resilient real-time response or local data transformation makes Wi-Fi an unviable candidate. For these needs, a private LTE deployment or acquiring a 5G slice should be considered.
2. Partner up with industry peers
Associations and consortiums, either on a local, regional or global reach, for one specific vertical or cross-industry, have been actively participating into negotiations with regulators and standardization organisms. Partnership is key to formalize each industry’s requirements, constraints and needs. Collaboration between enterprises with similar stakes result into re-thinking the possible ways to improve day-to-day operations with new technology. Furthermore, the ecosystem is more inclined to feature these requirements into their strategic roadmaps.
We can note a significant leadership in Germany, where the country has been promoting cross-industry networking since 2011 around Industry 4.0. Today, more than 300 players are actively participating into this platform. A strategy that enabled companies to apply for 5G spectrum directly from the regulator to deploy independent networks to trial and launch their specific applications.
3. Prepare for the impact
According to a poll in the UK, Barclays Research has concluded that only 15% of the decision makers understand 5G and its impacts on their businesses. Whether it's coming near you next year, or in five or more years, businesses and IT teams should work jointly to identify the real added-value for their activities and challenges of 5G for connecting people and machines, to later feature it into their global strategies.