January is often a time to reflectct on the past 12 months and have a peek into the crystal ball of the future.
2019 saw the commercial launch of 5G – exciting. It sounds new, but really, what’s changing? There is an opportunity for a fundamental shift in how Operators deliver in a new 5G world, but any change seems to be taking a while.
To make the most of it, requires a bold change in mindset. Currently, the common use cases touted for 5G, for me, fail to really go far enough. We are seeing applications of low latency which are really not truly ‘mobile’ in nature. Using 5G, in the medical field, for remote surgery, is not a mobile use case – two hospitals, now matter how far apart, are linked by fibre, not mobile networks.
I am eagerly awaiting the first really exciting capitalisation on the opportunity the new technology affords us. My crystal ball tells me it is coming in 2020 for sure.