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Ericsson | A practitioners’ guide to accelerate 5G for business in 2020
Chapter 3: Collaborations & Learnings
Why 5G will be an intensive learning journey Embracing 5G is like going to college. It’s a 5-year journey, and you’re excited about what life has in store for you at the end. I see this as a fitting analogy for 5G, as like college, many new things will be learnt on the way and they’ll be plenty of challenges, particularly in the first year as you transition from the class of 4G to becoming a 5G newcomer. Consider 2020 as your freshman year, a time when you are eager to explore and join your customers on an exciting learning journey. Here’s what lies ahead.
The 4G learning curve
Thanks to 4G, we now have access to millions of smartphone apps. The over the top model with universal connectivity for all services, created a level playing field for application developers. All app developers now have access to the same mobile broadband connectivity, and few have needed to interact with communication services providers or technology providers to secure their user experience. As a consequence, the application knowledge and learnings shared between industries and service providers has been limited. The introduction of Cellular IoT has represented the first step in a transformative journey. Its first wave, Broadband IoT leveraged the same technology (4G), business model (based on traffic or monthly subscriptions), and anchor for connectivity values (SIM cards) as smartphones do. This model allows us to address a subset of the market, but to reach the full potential of 5G and Cellular IoT, we will enter a more learning-intensive phase. As a communication service provider serving the B2B and B2B2C market, the learning will ramp up during these parallel transitions: • The expansion of Cellular IoT from Broadband IoT to massive IoT, critical IoT, and industry automation IoT. • Cellular network technologies expanding from public into private and hybrid networks. • The introduction of virtual private networks or network slices, adding value to businesses beyond “one slice fits all” connectivity, which as a result opens up room for new business models.
Stairway to 5G
The evolution of use cases from 4G to 5G can be compared to taking calculated steps on a staircase rather than taking one swift elevator trip. This reality became clear when looking at a broad portfolio of use cases, decoupled from the technology required for service delivery. The network capabilities define evolve use cases in three steps. 1) What you could do with classic 4G capabilities from yesterday 2) What you can do with evolved 4G today, and 3) How you can achieve the full 5G experience tomorrow. When looking at a specific use case through a 5G lens, we see two types. First, use cases that get an experience boost when delivered over 5G. Second, use cases that require 5G to reach the target experience. The main advantage of starting with 4G, wherever possible, is to gain application knowledge on the road to 5G. This knowledge reduces the challenges and risks when you eventually leverage 5G, as you have some of the deployment and go-to-market difficulties already addressed.
Collaboration and co-creation
The path to creating use cases is an innovation journey with a high degree of collaboration and co-creation between service providers and enterprises. The collaboration and co-creation process for first movers must be highly innovative, as needs, solutions, and business models are rarely crisp from the beginning.
