5G: Changing the Way the World Connects, Communicates, and Collaborates

By Manish Jain

It has been only a decade since the deployment of fourth-generation networks, but life today is incomparable. Currently, India's average data usage per smartphone is around 15 gigabytes (GB) per month, highlights the Ericsson Mobility Report 2021. In fact, the country is the second-highest globally, with its data consumption expected to surge to 40 GB by 2026.

The growth mentioned above will gain further impetus with the launch of the fifth generation of wireless or 5G network technology in India. Simply put, the move from 4th to 5th generation—or 5G—mobile communications is an innovation that will accelerate digitalization far beyond what we have experienced.

So, how will 5G revolutionize the consumer experience and the enterprise landscape?

The fifth generation of wireless network technology will kick-start the next wave of unforeseen innovations. With a transmission speed of up to 10 gigabits per sec, 5G will enable near-zero communication latency, where communications will occur in real-time without delay. In addition, its low latency bandwidth will offer real-time information gathering and delivery of data on a large scale.

Therefore, offering much faster speed and efficiency than its legacy 3G and 4G predecessors, 5G will emerge as a predominant LAN and WAN technology in the upcoming years. For instance, it will be an essential technology for autonomous or driverless vehicles. Well, leveraging this seamless technology, cars will communicate with roads, traffic lights, and other cars in real-time - even exceeding the capabilities of the human senses. In addition, the next-generation network will support up to 1 million connected devices per square km.

Enhance the contribution of digital transformation

Along with empowering innovative thinking and enhancing the consumer experience, 5G’s high-speed computing and processing power at the network edge will benefit businesses across sectors in various new and innovative ways to sell, educate, and engage with consumers. Undoubtedly, AR and VR will experience a boom, allowing several industries to harness the capabilities of these technologies in the foreseeable future.

How will 5G impact different sectors?

Each sector stands to gain significantly by leveraging the 5G network as it will cater to services that need a tremendous amount of connection density.

Financial Sector:  One of the aspects that 5G will strengthen is the remote teller service, where customers will be able to get personalized attention via a video session without necessarily traveling to their nearest bank branch. At the same time, an automated financial assistant can remind customers about their monthly budget limit or suggest new ways to save while shopping at a store. In the future, 5G can help create mobile ATMs – that can move across locations. The new-age technology can facilitate fraud detection in real-time and help financial professionals create more efficient back-end processes.

Healthcare: The scope of innovation is massive, even within the healthcare industry. 5G technology will help receive real-time access to health data, allowing medical professionals to keep track of their patient's health conditions anytime, anywhere. Remote teleconsultation and diagnostics will fill the gaps in rural healthcare. Together with connected devices, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G is to bring the healthcare sector closer to the reality of remote surgery. For instance, Telefónica, a leading telecom company demonstrated the first 5G-enabled remote surgery assistance system along with a hospital in Malaga, Spain.

Agriculture: Introduction of emerging technologies like IoT and AI, enabled by 5G will improve overall productivity. Farmers will have access to advanced agricultural tools and techniques. Say, smart sensors installed in the farms will gather and deliver real-time temperature, humidity, and soil status - and gauging these farmers will be able to take immediate actions to keep their crops healthy. They also need to look after livestock management. In Ireland, farmers are using MooCall calving sensor, powered by 5G, that sends them SMS when a cow is approaching calving. All in all, 5G will help monitor, automate and improve agricultural operations and processes while enabling farmers to manage their resources efficiently.

Manufacturing: 5G will unlock Industry 4.0, thereby enabling equipment across the unit in the manufacturing segment to communicate in real-time with very high reliability. Besides boosting the productivity of many industries, the network will also increase the efficiency among the workforce who will have advanced machines at their disposal. For instance, 5G will boost industrial automation, like, an automobile manufacturing unit can install AI-powered cameras, and keep a track of assemblies and subassemblies of car parts.

GSMA Intelligence forecasts rapid 5G adoption rates after the initial launches in 2019. Considering India’s interest in 5G and its readiness to adopt the applications, GSMA Intelligence forecasts 5G connections in India to reach 6% of the total population by 2025 (72 million) and 93% by 2040.

So, India is moving along the road to 5G to deliver on its digital goals and ambitions. Hence, mobile broadband must remain at the heart of the country’s policy vision, considering the potential of mobile technology to address some of the challenges the country still faces.

Manish Jain is the CTO at Comviva