Latvia to discuss 5G commercialization at forum in November
Latvia will host an annual forum on fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology from Nov. 27 to 29, the Latvian Embassy in Seoul said last week.
The 2nd Baltic Sea Region 5G Ecosystem Forum will be held in the Latvian capital of Riga.
The Electronic Communication Office of Latvia, in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union and the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, is organizing the forum.
Also called 5G Techritory, the three-day forum will bring together more than 1,000 policymakers, business leaders and other 5G experts from Europe, the United States and Asia.
They will include executives from Microsoft, Qualcomm, Cisco, Deutsche Telecomm and Nokia.
From the Korean side will be Gweon Sun-cheol, vice chairman of the country’s 5G Forum Advisory Committee.
They will discuss commercially viable 5G business models related to smart cities, smart mobility and Industry 4.0, which refers to the gradual combination of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices with digital technology.
“We are happy to host the leading minds of 5G, a new generation technology, from Europe and beyond,” Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said in a press release. “5G has a great potential to improve our businesses and our everyday life. The forum will be a wonderful opportunity to discuss and lay foundations for successful cross-border collaboration, where policy and business converge.”
The forum, according to organizers, is expected to serve as “a platform for cross-border, cross-level and cross-sectoral collaboration” in the Baltic Sea region.
The region includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden. The region has a population of more than 150 million, which makes it “on par with global superpowers,” according to the organizers.
The forum will include an inaugural “hackathon” among policymakers, with the goal of discovering any problems associated with policies using 5G.
“5G is one of those technological breakthroughs that have the potential to change the way we live,” Karins said. “We have to be responsible for creating an environment and legislation at a cross-border level that will enable innovations and increase our economic competitiveness globally.”
He added the hackathon is expected to help prepare better legislation for the possibilities that 5G technologies will create and to establish the Baltic Sea region as a leader in 5G innovation.
The first 5G Techritory was held in September 2018.
It discussed ideal business models using 5G, the Baltic Sea region’s contributions for “a healthy 5G ecosystem” and also how the forum can serve as a role model for building a “European Gigabit Society.”
Meanwhile, the organizers underscored that Latvia is ranked third in 5G readiness in Europe.
Recent developments include the launch of a 5G mobile network in July and Latvian language translation company Tilde wining a machine translation award for the third straight year in August.
The Baltic state rolled out superfast 5G wireless technology, after completing the relevant tests in September 2018.
Tilde won this year’s Workshop on Machine Translation (WMT), the world’s largest such contest, held in Florence, Italy.
Tilde outperformed international software giants like Google and Microsoft in English-Lithuanian translation before capturing its third straight win in this annual workshop.
Tilde competed in Estonian-English translation in 2018 and Latvian-English translation in 2017.