5G and The Future

In a keynote address at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, industry leaders were urged to work with regulators to make 5G and the future a reality

18:51 06 July 2017

The industry must work with regulators to make 5G a reality, Sunil Bharti Mittal said at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai, a conference organised by 800 mobile operators around the world known as GSMA. Mittal, who is chairman of India’s mobile giant Bharti Enterprises, said that the industry would need help from regulators on spectrum pricing, taxes and availability so that the full potential of 5G and The Future  could be realised.

 

5G is a highly anticipated technology expected to allow smartphone users to embrace the new tech era of artificial intelligence, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), and virtual reality.

 

Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, a technology company that pioneered the 3G and 4G, said that economic impacts of 5G could well reach 12 trillion US dollars (Bt407tn). He predicted that Japan, Korea and China would make $1.6 trillion from the 5G platform by 2035.

 

However, Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said that all is not rosy and that mobile operators must prepare for falling consumer data prices to reach zero. In his address, he said: “There is a real possibility the price for data to the customer will go to zero in the next five to 10 years.” He then urged operators to ensure that they offer wider, consumer-friendly services in order to continue to be relevant and to avoid falling down the value chain.