5G: The Key To Future American Competitiveness?

The telecomm industry is in the midst of a 5G race, one of, if not the most consequential and intense technological contests of this generation. So, what will it take to win this race?

The global competition for technological supremacy and domination is one of the five major trends governments and businesses are grappling with.?

And as the global race to research, develop, and deploy 5G telecom networks intensifies, there is a tandem rise in urgency for America to invest in digital infrastructure.

Rapid and mass installation of 5G will go a long way in helping the United States maintain its technological and economic dominance on the global stage. Additionally, wide-scale deployment and utilization of 5G technology will help the U.S. meet three of its main objectives:

1. 5G will help the U.S. transition its economy to the Fourth Industrial Revolution steered technological innovation.

2. Mass adoption of 5G technology will help transform the business landscape into a more competitive and innovative environment that can support high-quality, high-paying jobs.

3. It will also increase access to the under-served parts of the U.S. at both the local community level and the private sector.

The stakes for the mass 5G deployment are high. The first country to create a wide-scale, dependable 5G network stands to reap enormous economic benefits. The first benefits include increased technological innovation, strengthened national competitiveness, and enhanced economic growth. The return on investments pales the upfront costs considerably.

5G: A Changing World?

The evolution of the network standards from the voice-only 2G to text and voice and the currents standards – the 4G LTE technology – has created a thriving digital economy. When fully deployed, the 5G network and the underlying technology will be transformative. 5G technology brings forth greater bandwidth, yielding enormous support for Machine to Machine (M2M) communications. Communication between sensors, cell phones, smart appliances and machines, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Aside from supporting IoT devices, 5G will support futuristic appliances, devices, and technologies, which will form the core of future production. For instance, robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, and additive manufacturing stand to gain from the 5G technology.

No one doubts that 5G technology will significantly impact the American economy and consumers. For starters, there will be performance improvements on the internet connectivity. For instance, consumers will experience faster real-time gaming and video streaming thanks to the reduced latency that 5G yields.?

The Health250 report published by Kearney’s highlights the different ways mobile health solutions from IoT devices, wearables, and other related techs will take advantage of 5G. The report indicates that 5G will enable real-time monitoring and improved data collection while making advanced medical technologies such as remote surgery possible.

The enormous power of 5G has the potential to play a part in any upcoming “cord-cutting” involving fixed service. Current underserved customers and those experiencing poor connectivity stand to gain enormously from 5G’s potential to provide high-speed connectivity.

Every company’s R&D department should rethink ways to improve their manufacturing processes for both old and new products. With global competition getting ever stiffer, are you focus on innovating in your company?

Like in every other field, 5G is expected to impact the B2B market significant. From chipmakers to software and hardware manufacturers, the entire information industry will build out the 5G technology with IoT and B2B customers. Companies will be creating countless devices that talk to one another and the cloud, transferring massive amounts of data through the 5G network.

IoT devices powered by current technology are permeating our lives. However, 5G will enhance connectivity between these devices by taking advantage of improved spectrum efficiency, network slicing, and improved power management.

Consequently, businesses will be better placed to manage their factories and fields. Compared to WLAN networks, the lower latency of 5G will make it easy for companies to track goods in real-time along their supply chain, to the shelf, and finally to the customers’ homes.

5G will also make data sharing multidirectional. For example, a car tire will have sensors to monitor and collect data on wear and tear, temperature, road conditions, air pressure, and much more for both the car owner and tire manufacturer. The tire manufacturer will have the capacity and opportunity to provide crucial input on vehicle maintenance while also using the data to develop better products in the future.

Finally, 5G will make smart cities possible. Smart cities will feature better motorist safety, better traffic management, optimized routing, and much more. These features will be possible due to city systems and cars sharing massive amounts of data generated by traffic lights, road sensors, other vehicles, and other devices.

Generally, there has always been a trade-off between support for latency and M2M in the networks. However, 5G will actualize improvements in both, thereby yielding improved performance across the board. Rob Thies, a World Innovation Lab Venture general partner, reckons that adopting 5G will be as consequential as the dial-up to DSL transition. It will change the world significantly.

Qualcomm estimates the worldwide 5G value chain will be $3.5 trillion by 2035. This valuation is more than today’s entire mobile value chain. On top of that, there will be an additional $12.3 trillion value in 5G-enabled growth. The growth figures are equally staggering for the United States.?

CTIA, the telecom industry association, estimates that 5G can create an additional 3 million jobs beyond the existing wireless industry that supports 4.7 million workers. The 5G industry will create approximately $500 billion worth of economic growth on the economic growth front. 5G-enabled innovation developed by major companies and start-ups will also generate additional economic value.

However, the speed, extent, and efficiency with 5G technologies deliver these social and economic benefits largely depend on the timeline, scale, and geographical scope of investment made in the 5G technologies. Additionally, friendly government policies on adopting technologies such as friendly government spectrum auctions will also enhance the adoption of 5G. 5G technology opens up new blocks of spectrum, which makes it a cost-effective option to serve the relentless increase in demand from traffic.

One of the main incentives for investing in 5G is the potential to create new and lucrative revenue streams, especially when telecom companies work closely together with B2B companies. For instance, the enhanced capabilities that come with 5G technologies will necessitate the changes in the cost structure for over-the-top (OTT) services providers such as video content providers, artificial and virtual reality services, autonomous vehicle operators and other services providers.

An excellent example of budding business relationships occasioned by 5G is Tesla working with Intel to bring to market vehicles with 5G connectivity. Ericson further estimates that the digitization of industries that telecom companies can tap into will be about $620 billion by 2026. Naturally, we’ll have a lot of experimentation in the 5G space in the coming years.

Aside from B2B, the B2C sphere will also incentivize industry players to invest in 5G, especially considering the global rise of mobile use. As reported in Mary Meeker’s 2018 Internet Trends, mobile internet usage is the primary driver of digital media consumption. The global average smartphone price continues to fall while mobile payment technologies have become ubiquitous. Notably, the mobile experience has become part of our daily lives. 5G will allow more services to come online, further amplifying and improving the mobile experience.