The evolution of use cases from 4G to 5G can be compared to taking calculated steps on a staircase rather than taking one swift elevator trip, says Peter Linder, 5G Customer Engagement Marketing, Ericsson.
In his post on the company’s official blog titled, ‘Why 5G will become a n intensive learning journey’, Linder says the introduction of ‘Cellular IoT’ was in many ways the first step in a transformative journey. Its first wave, Broadband IoT leveraged the same technology (4G), business model (based on traffic or monthly subscriptions), and anchor for connectivity values (SIM cards) as smartphones do.
“This model allows us to address a subset of the market, but to reach the full potential of 5G and Cellular IoT, we will enter a more learning-intensive phase”, says Linder.
He feels the learning will ramp up during these parallel transitions:
- The expansion of Cellular IoT from Broadband IoT to massive IoT, critical IoT, and industry automation IoT.
- Cellular network technologies expanding from public into private and hybrid networks.
- The introduction of virtual private networks or network slices, adding value to businesses beyond “one slice fits all” connectivity, which as a result opens up room for new business models.
The main advantage of starting with 4G, he feels, is to gain application knowledge on the road to 5G. This knowledge reduces the challenges and risks when you eventually leverage 5G, since some of the deployment and go-to-market difficulties have already addressed.
via: Ericsson blog
Image credit: Ericsson