THE 5G INFRASTRUCTURE Association - November 2020

5G IA

DIGITAL REPORT 2020

5G Innovation and Digital Transformation

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5G Innovation and Digital Transformation

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Colin Willcock, Chairman of the Board at 5G IA, discusses 5G innovation, digital transformation and the impact of COVID-19

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raduating with a doctorate in parallel computation in 1992, Colin Willcock, Chairman of the Board of the 5G IA,

began his career in a small telecoms consultant company working with multiple major companies including Siemens and Alcatel in the area of test 04

equipment. Dr. Willcock moved to Nokia in 1999 where he has held various positions in research and standardisation. In 2017 Dr. Willcock was presented with the opportunity to be the representative for Nokia in the 5G IA board where shortly afterwards he took over the position of chairman.

Established in December 2013, Dr. Willcock explained that “5G IA’s ambition is to be the voice of the European industry on all things 5G, including research, development and deployment. As well as the big players within the industry such as Nokia, Ericsson and Orange, the 5G IA also includes SMEs, academics and research institutes. We’ve got the whole ecosystem within the association and we try and work with the European

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“ 5G IA’s ambition is to be the voice of the European industry on all things 5G, including research, development and deployment” — Colin Willcock, Chairman of the Board, 5G IA

was the running of the 5G public private partnership (5G PPP), so the 5G IA is responsible for industrial side of

Commission quite closely to develop

this key research partnership between

the best strategies for Europe when it

the public and private sectors to bring

comes to 5G. One of the main things

leadership in 5G research.”

we concentrate on and the initial reason for the creation of the association

Over the years, the 5G PPP has worked on multiple projects which

5G PPP phase 3: Providing solutions for verticals

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E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Colin Willcock Title: Chairman of the Board

Company: 5G IA

Industry: Telecommunications

Location: Germany

Colin has detailed knowledge and experience of the telecommunications industry having worked directly or indirectly with many of the major players over a 28-year period. The roles have included software developer, technical consultant, technical marketing, standardization and management. The software development has been at both the project and product levels including responsible for customer relations and software QA procedures. The management has been at project, program, group and competence area level, often involving multi-site and multi-country responsibilities.

In addition to line manager roles, he has participated extensively in standardization activities at ETSI, ITU-T and 3GPP, including instrumental work in creating and developing the TTCN-3 testing language. Colin has also been very active in the European research ecosystem, including leading a number of awardwinning European projects such as TT-Medal, D-MINT and SEMAFOUR. Colin is currently head of Radio Network Standardization at Nokia and in addition is also the chairman of the board of the 5G Infrastructure Association.

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have set the foundation for the indus-

bringing this 5G technology to other

try’s understanding of 5G. “One of the

industries outside of the classical

key results from the 5G PPP projects

telecoms sector such as automotive,

has been the creation of pre-standard-

healthcare, media, industry 4.0, smart

isation consensus. This consensus has

cities and smart agriculture, to drive

encompassed what the key functional

digital transformation and to make sure

blocks and requirements should be, as

that the European industry is competi-

well as what 5G should do and what 5G

tive by using this technology.” Dr.

should be. “The 5G PPP program will

Willcock explained that, “the promise

run for seven to eight years. In the first

of 5G is to use this technology as the

phase which covered the first three

enabling glue to make a truly digital

to four years we have been doing

society, both commercially within

fundamental research into 5G. The

industry, but also from a societal point

second phase was centred around

of view as an infrastructure to tackle

5G PPP reference figure of active projects in Phase III

“ In this second phase we’ve been working together with these industries to show them that it is worth investing in 5G technology” — Colin Willcock, Chairman of the Board, 5G IA

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The Need For 5G CLICK TO WATCH

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2:45

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5G PPP Phase 3 Platforms Cartography

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key societal issues. In 5G PPP phase

Talking about the third phase, Dr.

two, we have worked with many big

Willcock said “I think we’ve demon-

names from the vertical industries –

strated the power of 5G and the need

Volvo, BMW, ABB and Siemens. For

to invest in the technology. In phase

such companies 5G is not their core

three, what we’re trying to do is build

business. Connectivity is important

a 5G innovation platform, where players

to them, but not necessarily central. In

within the industry such as innovative

this second phase we’ve been put-

SMEs, can develop their ideas on a

ting the ideas together from both the

5G platform. The concept is to drive

vertical industries and the telecoms

the next innovative ideas by giving

industries to come up with better

them access to 5G technologies

solutions for the future. We have

to show that it works.”

shown them that it is worth investing in 5G technology”

In addition to driving the development and adoption of 5G, Dr. Willcock

5G by Colin Willcock 5G IA Chair, announcing the 7th Global 5G Event CLICK TO WATCH

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0:43

“ The promise of 5G is to use this technology as the enabling glue to make a digital society, both commercially within key industries, but also from a societal point of view” — Colin Willcock, Chairman of the Board, 5G IA

transformation and 5G technology to Europe and then deploy that technology across the world. We’ve

explained that “while we’re still very

got dozens of industries working

much at the beginning of the 5G story,

together to show how digital trans-

we have just had a call for project pro-

formation can help and trying to show

posals to look beyond 5G. We have

that it is worth investing in. So, it’s very

created the first versions of the 5G

much at the heart of what we’re doing,

standard and are now in the process

and I think we can claim quite a lot of

of evolving the technology to fully

success in driving digital transforma-

support the non-telecoms vertical

tion through the 5G PPP collaborative

industries. However, the network

projects. These projects have also

technology evolution will not stop

focused on other key transforma-

with 5G and we want to make sure

tional areas like standardisation.”

that we start looking at 6G early

One key element Dr. Willcock

enough to ensure Europe can retain

believes is often underrated is

its leadership role in this domain”.

the concept of culture and mindset.

When it comes to working with

“The problem is that industries are

organisations to drive transformation

often only interested in short term

and innovation within their operations,

technological solutions – this often

Dr. Willcock explained that, “obviously

leads them to apply the solutions of

digital transformation is at the heart

yesterday to the problems of tomor-

of what the 5G IA does. We are try-

row – this is often true when they

ing to bring leadership in digital

are considering communications 5g -ia . eu

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technologies. But if you look at the difference it makes to apply advanced communication technologies, like 5G, in terms of things like improving the process from the point of sales, through to manufacturing, to delivery, the potential advantage is huge in terms of money saved. The reality is, if you don’t move to that technology, there is a danger you will no longer be competitive. Too often the current culture and mindset is focused on the financial report for the next quarter or 14

the quarter after that. This short termism means it’s often very difficult to see the medium-term picture and the huge advantages.”

This is where Dr. Willcock believes that the investment made by 5G IA demonstrates the advantages of applying future looking technologies and investing in digitalisation. “the 5G PPP projects gives a chance for organisations to actually look beyond short-term goals, and actually see the bigger picture, and hopefully then that will enable the mindset in those companies to be more open, to invest in more advanced technologies and gain competitive advantage”.

“ One of the things we concentrate on and the initial reason for the creation of the association was to run the 5G public private partnership (PPP)” — Colin Willcock, Chairman of the Board, 5G IA

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As technology evolves, Dr. Willcock

success. And with this increased

believes that along with the evolution

importance, the security and pro-

the importance of communications

tection aspects become ever more

technology continues to increase.

critical. If we look to the future, in five

However, with this increased impor-

years 5G will be one of the fundamen-

tance, “one needs to be careful

tal networks tying our world together,

because technology in isolation often

from the automated car driving on the

does not solve problems. It’s technol-

highway, to healthcare and energy

ogy, together with the ability to apply

systems, driving digital transformation.�

it, the right regulatory environment and investment that can determine 5g -ia . eu

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