Vertical services equate to new operator revenue, 5G-IA says
In an interview with RCR Wireless News during 5G Americas’ 5G New Horizons Wireless Symposium in Austin, Texas, Colin Willcock, chairman of the 5G Infrastructure Association, said Europe might not be first to deploy the next generation of wireless because ecosystem interests are more focused on enablement of vertical transformation rather than standing up enhanced consumer-facing services.
The 5G-IA feeds into European standards body 5GPP. In addition to leading that group, Willcock also serves as head of radio network standardization at Nokia.
U.S. operators, racing to claim 5G-related first, are looking at deployments based on both pre-standard and the non-standalone 5G New Radio specification, which adds a carrier to an LTE RAN, while also using an LTE core.
“In other parts of the world,” Willcock said, “we see perhaps the first systems being deployed earlier, but those systems are typically concentrating more on massive broadband whereas in Europe what we see is maybe not so much fist deployment now, but a very broad range of trials…to try out a lot of these important ideas with the vertical industries which will actually be the test of whether 5G is successful or not.”
Watch the full video interview with Willcock.
In Germany, Nokia is working with the Hamburg Port Authority and Deutsche Telekom to test network slicing in an industrial context. The network supports trial activity related to traffic light management, analysis of sensor data and virtual reality applications.
To understand this vertical approach, Willcock first asked, “Why are vertical industries important? Why do I need anything else rather than just more and more data? The point is the actual revenue. The amount of money that can be created in that classical telecoms world of a user, an operator, a vendor, that is somewhat limited. If we’re really going to get these all encompassing networks…we need other sources of revenue. We need to bring in some industries.”
Willcock, highlighting the reliability and latency gains expected of full-blown 5G, gave the example of a self-driving car: “If the car is driving itself and if, around the corner on the motorway or the Autobahn, there is an accident and the 5G system is being used to make sure my car doesn’t get involved in that accident, then at that point the robustness of that connection, the fact that my car does get that message, and the fact that my car does get that message with enough time to slow down so it doesn’t hit the accident around the corner, that then becomes life critical.
“This is for me the promise of 5G. It’s not just about YouTube on your mobile phone. It’s about having an integrated series of networks which bring the promise of automated driving, of smart cities, or remote telemedicine, of things like this.”
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