19
Ericsson | A practitioners’ guide to accelerate 5G for business in 2020
Chapter 5: Role in the ecosystem
How 5G is transforming the mobile ecosystem “Ecosystem” is one of the most used words in the mobile industry, which today is a well-defined, established world. Communication service providers, network technology providers, and smartphone vendors all have a clear idea on the cadence of network and smartphone releases. Over the top providers are essential for end users but play a limited role in developing this ecosystem. However, with the rollout of 5G, this reality is changing. Now, the ecosystem is expanding to include the industries served. Communication service providers, network technology providers, and anchors in large enterprises are collaborating to form ecosystems. The goal is to exploit the full potential of 5G – beyond over the top services alone.
The mobile ecosystem heritage
Traditionally, three key stakeholders have critical roles in the mobile ecosystem: mobile communication service providers – who upgrade networks, and sell phones and subscriptions, network technology partners – who offer complete or parts of network solutions, and smartphone providers – who create phones from standardized hardware and software platforms. These three groups collaborate closely to build the foundation used by millions of mobile app providers. To date, the mobile ecosystem used a model where most applications ride on top of universal broadband connectivity. This “one slice fits all’ approach will remain for non-performance critical applications. But as more industries are connected, the mobile ecosystem will expand to include new partners and raise the bar for network capabilities.
Five years of 5G industry collaborations
The expansion of the ecosystem started with the standardization of 5G and the desire to expand application potential in two different directions: firstly, additional support from massive IoT applications – also referred to as massive machine-type communication (mMTC), and secondly, critical IoT – also called Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) or critical machine-type communication (cMTC). By adding these two distinct use case categories, we opened the door to the mobile ecosystem and invited in industries who weren’t yet leveraging the full potential of new network
capabilities. We have laid the foundation for tailoring connectivity to serve un-, under-served and over-served market segments. An expanded mobile ecosystem can unlock this latent value, which has significant potential.
Multi-party collaborations
A common theme across industries is the growth of multi-party efforts for cocreation and vetting of new use cases. Common stakeholders in the expanded ecosystem are: • Global industry anchors - with vertical experience and a desire to take advantage of 5G to solve specific business challenges. • Communication service providers - who act as providers of connectivity, service enablement, and applications in some cases. • Network technology partners - securing the roadmap for network technology that meets the demand for a broader range of vertical applications. • Device innovators - providing a range of IoT devices for the realization of new use cases. • Application creators - developing software applications working in tandem with device innovations. • System integrators - working closely with industry anchors to refine needs, solutions, and investment cases. These multi-party collaboration initiatives represent what’s required to nail a new industry use case. A task where a horizontal network platform connects to vertical use cases
