Consumer 5G mobile service is available in many U.S. markets, but enterprise 5G is where the real potential lies.
With a few exceptions, telecommunications executives and experts speaking at Mobile World Congress last week highlighted not the potential for consumer 5G as it builds out, but for enterprise 5G, which is only on the cusp of coming online.
"This will be the first generation of wireless that really the potential will be realized outside the phone," said Don McGuire, chief marketing officer at telecommunications technology company QUALCOMM Inc.
His job has gotten much easier as enterprises of all stripes are coming to Qualcomm before his team has to go market to them, McGuire said. The COVID-19 period only accelerated enterprise digital transformation strategies as organizations expanded their networks to include armies of remote working employees and consumers that demanded more digital connectivity.
"The momentum is catching fire," the executive said.
A large fraction of the enterprise demand for 5G will come in the form of internet of things devices and connectivity. Smart devices inside a factory will track data on production and the health of equipment operations. Smart vehicles will connect to smart traffic lights and pedestrian zones and other nodes inside a city to ensure safe and efficient traffic flow. Smart plows and harvesters on farms will connect to smart silos, and smart devices throughout fields will direct farmers and their equipment on where resources are needed for watering, fertilizing and harvesting.
The list of IoT applications already understood is numerous, and many speakers argued that we cannot even fathom the use cases that will arise once the connectivity is available.
"Networks are transitioning," said Ishwar Parulkar, chief technologist at Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Web Services. "You don't realize the full potential of 5G when you're in that state."
Through 2025, mobile operators are expected to spend $300 billion in capital expenditures, with 98% going to 5G connectivity, according to mobile industry trade group GSMA. In 2025, IoT volumes will reach $25 billion.
"Mobile broadband to the consumer market has been the core proposition in early 5G deployments," GSMA Chief Marketing Officer Stephanie Lynch-Habib said during the conference. "Now business-to-business is the largest incremental opportunity in the 5G era."
IoT devices will not only consist of inert smart meters like thermostats and sensors, but they will also include robots. At least that was the vision presented by Boston Dynamics Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.
 Spot, an agile mobile robot, on a construction jobsite. Spot and robots like him may be 5G's killer app, according to executives.Source: Boston Dynamics |
IBM Chief Technology Officer Rob High and Boston Dynamics Chief Sales Officer Mike Pollitt were joined on stage by Spot, a quadrupedal robot under development at Boston Dynamics for many years. The dog-like machine was able to easily climb the stairs to join its human colleagues and even perform a little dance for the audience.
High and Pollitt said Spot was more than just a novelty, but "the killer app for 5G," as High put it.
Spot left the stage to search around the conference facility for fire extinguishers to check if they were accessible and functioning. Spot came with its own hefty array of onboard sensors and computing abilities, as well as a payload dock on its back to house additional computers and custom software. The robot was designed to not only go where humans cannot, like sites involving noxious gasses or extreme temperatures, but also do routine maintenance and monitoring work on typical human-operated facilities.
High compared Spot's capabilities to a human driver turning on their car. The driver immediately knows if there is a strange sound or vibration, and they can bring their car to the mechanic based on that feedback. Spot can do the same, but inside nuclear facilities or in the vacuum of space. And where much of IoT deployment will require retrofitting facilities with data-collecting smart devices, Spot can fill the gap as the necessary infrastructure is being built out.
"This will be a decade of nonstop investment and nonstop innovation," said Meredith Attwell Baker, CEO of telecommunications trade group CTIA.