What 5G means to different players in the ecosystem.

5G is capturing the mind space in the technology and business events, news and the net through social forums and posts. Commercial networks have been launched in some places. These early launches are primarily focused on eMBB and FWA. 5G networks in true commercial sense bringing in all that 5G is expected to bring about will take some time considering the myriad cogwheels to fall in place.  As 5G takes to the wings, how do different actors in the game look at it? What are the different perspectives that comes to the fore ? In this post, we look at some key players. 

1.Governments:

There are three major areas where the national governments look at the world of 5G.

a. Increase the exchequer with as much money as possible by auctioning 5G bands. Flog the 5G spectrum as much as possible and make up for the deficit in revenues from other areas.

We have seen in the recent auctions in Germany, 420 MHz spectrum in the 2 GHz and 3.6 GHz bands was allotted for  $7.3 billion.

In Italy, the 5G spectrum in the  3.4 -3.6 GHz, 26 GHz and 700 MHz bands for a total of 1260 MHz increased the government coffers by as much as $7.6 billion.

In India, the auctions are yet to take place but the base price is set at $ 70 M per MHz with service providers expected to shell out $ 7 B for 100 MHz countrywide spectrum in the 3.4-2.6 GHz band.

While revenue is a prime consideration, there is increased awareness that 5G can deliver to the society and the economy

b. Means of extending broadband to more areas and the population.

c.  Being one of the pillars for Industry 4.0 by being one in the quad of 5G, AI, IoT and, block chain.

As governments realize the potential of 5G to make impact on the society and economy, the temptation to rake in as much as possible is something hard to resist. Of course countries like South Korea have kept 5G spectrum prices low and so has Australia. (Australia: $ 5 Million per MHZ, South Korea: 18 Million per MHz)..

d. Political and economic warfare- The stakes are high in the fight for dominance and hegemony in the emerging high technology space be it AI or 5G. When these fights gets enmeshed with security issues - real and perceived, the brew can become quite heady. So brace on for more action in this front.

2. Multilateral agencies-UN, ITU, World Economic Forum

The sustainable development goals for 2030 agenda was adopted by the United Nations in 2015. It is expected that ICT can play a major role in meeting each of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) like -Zero Hunger, No Poverty ,Quality Education extending to all of the 17 goals.  5G is set to play an important role in achieving the SDGs to address critical areas related to humanity and the earth as we know it.

4. Service providers - The search is on for the holy grail for future sustenance. Will 5G help in bringing new users and more usage? Will IoT do the same? Can IoT using 5G as the access layer deliver?  Voice has reached saturation levels in many regions. With the increased usage of messaging and voice applications, the future as they say is in data. And data carries voice as one of its myriad applications. 5G gives the needed platform to transform into a more integrated service provider to serve the different needs and types of users. Some providers have already started services and others are in the pipeline, waiting for the opportune time. There are essentially two types of service providers- -ones that will take the lead in deploying 5G and drive the ecosystem and use cases while there will be others who will wait to see how the 5G business case develops and wait for ecosystem (like devices )  to be in place to take the plunge. For the early adopters,  the race is on to being the first in the continent, the first in the region and the first state in the country!

5. OEMS – In the current business space, the fate of the many of the OEMs is intrinsically linked with that of the Service Providers. For the manufacturers of technology infrastructure, 5G would mean the race to bring to the market, products and solutions meeting the 3GPP specifications and the needs of the users. The potential of 5G needs to be translated to the needs on the ground. As the early commercial launches take place in some countries, for other geographies it is the time for Trials and Pre-commercial Proof of concepts to showcase the abilities of this new technology. There is wholesome anticipation in the success of 5G. 

6. Regulator- Besides the obvious task of spectrum allocations, amount of spectrum, spectrum bands and in some cases determining auction base prices this important stakeholder will have its hands full. The regulator has to ensure the orderly behavior of the market and keep the end user interests in consideration. That is the job as we understand it. 5G as a technology is simply not an enhancement to 4G but is much more. The user is not only a human with a subscription who likes to keeps his data usage in check and have voice calls without dropping. Now we will have IoT devices riding over 5G. Enterprise users and Smart city infrastructures will use 5G as an access layer. Throw in ML, AI, cloud computing  and applications like connected cars and connected industries, the regulator has to work out news ways of ensuring quality of service to the varied users. It has to figure out the rules to penalize providers in case of violations. The search will be on for new metrics to capture the technical and other business information. What to regulate, How much to control and how much to leave to the market forces is a job cut out for the regulator!