How to ensure you make the most out of the 5G revolution
At this year’s winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea and at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world just put itself on display, giving a glimpse of what technology holds in the future.
The Winter Olympics featured the latest technology almost everywhere you looked — from sensorfilled speed-skating suits, to driverless buses, to digital payment gloves. Robots guided people through the airport. And more importantly, a 5G network debuted. The growing penetration of smartphones, extended network coverage and increased demand for data services has accelerated the demand for 5G worldwide and also in the UAE.
Recently, some of the leading telecom providers in the Middle East, including the UAE, announced their 5G rollout strategies, setting the stage for a 5G revolution in the country. 5G is expected to not only provide great Internet speeds but will also help facilitate the use of smart vehicles, transport and infrastructure as well as allow for the control of remote devices. With mobile phone usage in the UAE seen increasing to 228.3 phones per 100 people in the first quarter of 2017 according to the TRA and the UAE being ranked first in the Arab region in terms of the readiness of its telecommunications networks, according to a study published by the World Economic Forum, the rollout of 5G is definitely one of the most anticipated technological launches in the region.
We believe retail and industrial will be the first industries to take advantage of the IoT, a key consequence of the 5G. Retail, with increasing mobile wireless products such as smartphones, wearables and home assistants, and the supply
not just storage; data security will also be key to cope up with 5G and Iot
chain logistics that bring them to market, is leveraging the IoT to gain valuable customer insights, introduce new products and ensure customer satisfaction. And the industrial industry, with its connected turbine engines, power plants and vehicles (trains, cars, trucks), leverages the IoT to ensure greater efficiencies and safety in the production, running and maintenance of these things. We think healthcare and financial services are up next, once these industries can better ensure the needed levels of privacy and security. Another important industry on the cusp of massive transformation that will be enabled by the IoT is vehicular/transportation.
5G will make even more room for all the Internet-connected devices in our day-to-day life, further strengthening the IoT trend. However, to prepare and keep up with this trend, businesses would need to do is develop a data architecture for collecting, storing and processing all the IoT data — either in onpremises equipment, in the cloud, or both. It would be then necessary to interconnect all sources of data (IoT and other) using high throughput, low-latency connections for a faster response time in receiving,
processing and analysing the data.
Companies would require close collaboration, investment and innovation from network and mobile providers, who are building all the new connections to these new IoT devices. IoT platforms will need to build the storage capacity and ability to “crunch” all the data coming from those devices that is required to get the real-time insights companies need to make the right business decisions. Not just storage; data security will also be key, to cope up with 5G and IoT trends.