5G for enterprise – the evolving ecosystem of partners

5G for enterprises will enable platforms and ecosystems to support a range of new business models. 5G infrastructure fundamentally shifts how nations can enable digital transformation and impact GDP growth, by providing a hyper connected access to the world. Beyond new business models, 5G also helps bridge the digital divide to create a more level playing field for emerging markets to help nations compete in the future digital economies.

Access to 5G allows those in remote locations and traditional businesses to pivot and reinvent new business models that can significantly disrupt and improve the way they, and their customers, work.

The 5G impact on platforms and new ways of engaging is growing. As David Harrity, Managing Director, Regional Head of Client Coverage, Commercial Banking at HSBC points out “We see enormous opportunities for 5G to transform the end-to-end customer journey. As it supercharges the growth of ecosystems and the rise of platforms, 5G will accelerate the digital transformation for our customers – as well as their customers – be it across payments, supply chains or cross-border businesses. We believe 5G will undeniably lead to a massive improvement in customer experience”.

It will be particularly exciting to see how 5G changes some of the oldest industries in the world. Purity Brewing, for example, is hoping to use the latest technology to drive their productivity. Based on a farm in a remote part of the UK, they have limited connectivity to the internet, thereby restricting the use of IoT technologies in the brew house. 5G opens the possibility to automate the creation of their beer. It also opens the possibility to develop virtual reality tours of their brewing facility, for global visitors to visit and buy their beer.

Web 3.0 and Metaverse brings new opportunities to the market. Many can now imagine the value of being able to virtually tour a spectacular museum, climb Everest or watch a live sporting event. 5G enables real-time experiences and opportunities in ultra-HD for those who may not be able to travel. The ability for travel and retail industries to offer consumers different experiences could significantly transform monetization and advertising opportunities. This is just an example of how 5G can offer seamless new business models and provide immediate monetization opportunities in retail and travel.

“Ultra-low latency, quality of service through wide area networks to the device level and bandwidth comparable to fixed networks all are key values 5G provides enterprises”, says Lynn Smullen, Oracle Global VP Strategic Client Leader - Communications, Media, High Tech & Utilities. “But the ability to support key applications and processes with virtually no processing latency on 5G private networks might be the most disruptive feature, providing the biggest business model change.”

With Web 3.0 enabling decentralized networks embedded app payments, democratizing asset ownership and new virtual experiences, the ability to access and process, stream and access large amounts of data will require faster connectivity to devices, IoT and platforms. Which 5G can provide. These platforms enable smart cities, smart hospitals, supply chain platforms and virtual / digital twin platforms. We have seen these accelerate over the last few years and the market continues to look to new applications that leverage AI and ML capabilities to better improve business productivity and new ways to value for businesses and consumers.

"Creating a digital twin that incorporates a customer profile, location, and mobility lens, in addition to the network perspective, will ensure that every change, update, and optimization balances both network performance and customer experience expectations in harmony. This will drive improvements across the board and set the foundation for metaverse related investments.” says Will Cage, Global Head of Telco & Tech, Snowflake.

In Norway [1] they have a concept called ‘facial recognition of fish’. Currently the monitoring equipment deployed on the fisheries are connected to land via an undersea fiber optic cable. This is difficult to maintain and managed by staff on boats. Extending 5G coverage beyond the coastline, directly to fish farms, is expected to save costs as high-quality cameras connected by 5G, will be used to recognize parasites on fish and the fish themselves. This should remove the need for undersea fiber optic cables and can increase productivity (20 percent of farmed salmon in Norway die because of parasites costing salmon farmers about €500m a year), which helps lower costs allowing the farmers to make more money.

China Telecom [2] has shown how 5G new age private networking can help fight serious issues such as the COVID-19 outbreak in China. With 5G, it is possible to remotely diagnose the coronavirus in the Sichuan province of China. Twenty-seven 5G remote diagnosis centers have been set up across China, enabling high-definition real time remote group consultations and high-speed sharing of medical images and data. This highlights opportunities where remote care not only provides a safer environment for doctors but can also reduce the demand for hospital beds.

Managed private services can be profitable; telcos like Orange, Verizon and Telstra are building up their service offers. In Japan, DoCoMo, KDDI, and Softbank launched 5G in March 2020. With NTT buying out DoCoMo and the Japanese government being the largest stockholder in NTT, 5G deployment will likely be accelerated even further and the 5G tariff plan is also expected to be decreased. For example, we have seen Rakuten Mobile [3] launch 5G in September 2020 offer fairly aggressive tariff plans of $28 per month.

To succeed in the enterprise market telcos should demonstrate service agility and play to their strengths of ownership of wide-area networks and multiple points of presence close to enterprise customers.

As we continue, consider the ramifications of 5G for individuals and enterprises – keep an eye out for our next blog on the risks related to data privacy and security.

[1] Eamon Barrett Why 5G Will Mean More for Fish Farmers, Fortune, November 2019 & Alex Whiting Fish farmers seek new weapons to fight thriving parasites February 2020

[2] NS Medical Devices: ZTE helps China Telecom realise China’s first 5G remote diagnosis of new coronavirus pneumonia January 2020

[3] https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200929/p2g/00m/0bu/016000c