5G has dominated headlines and generated buzz for years. However, only recently has the market and technologies started to cross the chasm into the next stage of broader familiarity, embrace, and deployment. The first market shift has already occurred in the consumer segments – for example, all new Apple and Android devices are equipped to support 5G. But the technology’s true disruptive impact will be found in the second wave of enterprise use cases and applications. A recent JP Morgan report notes, “In the future, 5G will likely provide substantial enterprise opportunity which corporates are just beginning to recognize. It is expected that 5G will exceed $180 billion in North America by 2030.”
Enterprise 5G adoption is primed to take off by the mid 2020s. These deployments will transform businesses across all industries and make a massive impact on the global economy. Look for these three trends to shape the technology’s development in the coming years.
The rise of the 5G digital silk road
Previous generations of mobile network technology, such as 3G and 4G, delivered evolutionary advances and measured progress. 5G, however, is a revolutionary development that will enable groundbreaking, next generation use cases. As a result, 5G will be treated as an essential utility and assumed “natural resource” of infrastructure. Supplying the digital pipeline and harnessing data currency will become a focal point of national security and privacy concerns. This will compel new players and new entrants to supply 5G infrastructure. Hyperscale cloud providers will expand their cloud services to include 5G connectivity.
New OEMs and ODMs will launch 5G small cells for private enterprise environments. The race for 5G will in effect be a race for internet access and digital intelligence. Between system providers and network providers, 5G will stimulate discussions about wireless governance, security, and policies.
5G expands into non-telco environments
As noted earlier, whereas 2G, 3G and 4G mobile networks introduced measured improvements to cellular communications, 5G offers brand new capabilities and properties that will ignite imaginative possibilities for new end markets that extend beyond traditional telco environments. Governments and national defense contractors will look to develop and deploy fully custom, private 5G networks. Cable and internet providers will launch fixed wireless small cells, where the need for cooper cable wires is obsoleted in favor of 5G wireless connectivity. Smart factories, warehouses, and seaports will capitalize on robotic automation with private 5G networks enabled by Artificial Intelligence. Enterprises will move to combine WiFi and private 5G networks into one unified network where mission critical and non-mission critical devices can be simultaneously supported.
The tsunami of new connected devices will dwarf smartphones and test the pluralities of 5G. Massive customization at scale will be necessary to support the varying performance, power, and price points.
The cloudification of 5G
As the billions of people and trillion of devices get connected, computing resources must move closer to where data is being generated (today, data is moved to compute). The whole notion of edge computing will evolve around intelligent connectivity (5G) + intelligent compute (AI).
Companies capable of servicing this new industry model will profit the most from this trend. Traditional telco operators will need to respond on how they can monetize beyond providing infrastructure. New players will enter the market and cause major disruption, especially Hyperscale Cloud Providers such as Amazon Web Services, who recently announced private 5G networks. They will be transforming the industry towards a cloud-driven, app driven 5G network model. Hyperscalers in particular are positioned to capitalize on this new paradigm by supplying enterprises with a local edge cloud – complete with cloud services, hardware resources, and virtualized 5G network.
In addition, there will be a proliferation “Netflix”-type of turnkey 5G services invoked within enterprise settings such as factories, warehouses, airports and hubs. As new content and new data become available at the edge by new users, there will need to be content delivery platform. With the strength and reach of their existing platforms, Hyperscale Cloud providers have the unique ability to deliver such 5G content and services.
Conclusion
5G will be foundational to the evolution of edge computing. For the first time, digitalization of physical assets predicate on the convergence of three tectonic plates – connectivity (5G), compute (artificial intelligence) and cloud. To harness data “currency,” compute must migrate to the data source to enable cutting edge use cases in every vertical, from defense and healthcare to manufacturing and transportation, even the Metaverse. Very likely, the last mile of broadband deployment will take the form of 5G wireless connectivity. This will inevitably challenge the current market structure and bring disruptive innovation to the classic ecosystem. Watch for these key trends to unfold as part of the technology’s maturation.
