Transformational impact of 5G already being realised

Despite a slow rollout, the reality of 5G is finally catching up to its original promise, experts say. Governments and industry are finally ready to embrace the capabilities of 5G and build the infrastructure required for “smart homes”, “smart cities” and the “internet of things” (IoT).

According to EU plans, Europe will be hyper-connected by 2025, begging the question – how far down the road to 5G are we? It isn’t hyperbole when Huawei’s senior corporate communications manager Luke McDonnell says digital technologies are “emerging and iterating faster today than at any time in history”.

“Information flows created by technologies, such as 5G, cloud, video, IoT, and AI, are defining the trends that are reshaping the world we live in, the world we work in, and the world we connect in.”

Karl McDermott, Three Ireland’s head of connected solutions, explains that the development of smart homes and IoT solutions require managed and connected devices along with applications to derive use from the devices.

“Data analytics from these devices feeds into this solution and can bring about continuous improvement and learning. These things are very real at the moment and are part of the significant growth in IoT over the last few years.”

5G brings a number of new features to these solutions such as faster speeds and higher throughput to the devices; it even promises a millisecond reaction time to act upon data sent by a device – this is currently hundreds of milliseconds. “It also allows for significantly higher density of connected devices communicating simultaneously.”

McDermott says these solutions typically require an ecosystem of companies partnering together including the device manufacturers, application development companies and the connectivity companies. The good news is that this co-operation and collaboration is already happening. “These ecosystems are in place now and the solutions are being built across all vertical markets such as retail, logistics, utilities and healthcare, to name but a few.”

This transformational impact is already being realised. According to McDonnell, the current 5G infrastructure will allow us to realise the potential of this new technology by offering faster speeds and lower latency, ie the ability for the network to process a very high volume of data messages. It will inevitably have a positive impact on economic growth, he adds.

“The next 10 years will be the decade of 5G. It will likely be businesses who will realise the benefits and opportunities, with consumers following quite quickly too owing to the range of 5G handsets now available on the market.”

Indeed, consumers are also keen to embrace 5G – a survey by Huawei last year found that 80 per cent of those surveyed believe it is extremely important for Irish society that there is widespread 5G network coverage in Ireland by 2025.

Consumers also realise the importance of 5G “smart” applications for Ireland; smart energy grids (60 per cent), smart homes (45 per cent), smart cities (40 per cent), and real-time translations (53 per cent) were named as some of the 5G applications that will play an important role in the future of the country.

Another of the benefits of 5G is the ability for the mobile network to be “sliced” – partitioned into different cores for specific uses. Three is finalising its IoT Core Slice, which is a 5G network specifically for IoT applications and devices. It is hoped this will be completed within the coming weeks and McDermott explains that the benefit of this is that IoT will have its own 5G network, “allowing end users access all the features of 5G”.

The very near future is even brighter in terms of the broader societal impact of 5G, McDonnell adds.

“If we consider that 2019 was the year of exploration of 5G applications with autonomous driving, automated factories; 2020 and 2021 was the further development of these applications bringing smart ports, smart campuses and smart grids to the fore, along with smart healthcare. Then for 2022 and beyond we will likely see the large-scale application of 5G in vertical industries – nursing robots in smart healthcare; drone delivery in smart logistics; industrial sensors for smart campuses; and vehicle platooning in smart transportation.”

This is already happening. In terms of a tangible example, McDermott cites Three’s Glanbia manufacturing plant deployment, with an indoor 5G network solution inside the cheese plant at Glanbia Ireland’s facility in Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny.

This 5G network will enable faster and more accurate maintenance tasks on the plant floor and will assist in problem solving, providing for richer analysis of plant processes and reducing manual administration, he says. “The new indoor 5G network will bring greater connectivity and data security, allowing Glanbia to trial AR and VR applications, and test how 5G can provide enhanced connectivity solutions for their wider production facilities.”

But when it comes to true “hyperconnectivity”, how close are we to this becoming a reality? McDonnell says perhaps sooner than we think. “In Ireland all operators have rolled out 5G and it is becoming more readily available in cities and towns across the country. Globally, there are already 176 5G commercial networks and more than 10,000 projects exploring how 5G can drive industrial digitalisation. On the consumer end, there are already more than 490 million 5G users worldwide,” he explains.

Estimates suggest that by 2025, 5G will serve almost 60 per cent of the global population.

“A set of truly immersive experiences will emerge,” McDonnell says. “These will allow us to transcend the boundaries of time and space in domains like high-definition live broadcasts, smart classrooms, remote education, online healthcare, and virtual entertainment. 5G will also allow industries like manufacturing, electricity, transportation, finance, and many others to go digital, embrace artificial intelligence, and deliver new value for their customers.”