451 Research published its first Foresight Report, The Coming Revolution: 5G and its Impact on IT. This in-depth report, available for free download, explores the potential technological and business impact of 5G on the IT industry over the next decade.
451 Research believes that 5G will have a catalytic effect on a wide range of IT technology and services, impacting almost all parts of industry and society far beyond mobile technologies and business models. 451 recommends that any supplier that is touched by the mobile Internet, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud services, consumer electronics or automation needs to assess the coming impact of 5G.
“IT players need to think about IoT now and 5G soon,” said Ken Rehbehn, principal analyst, mobile telecom, at 451 Research. “Whether it is real-time analytics, datacenter design, location-based Web services, or social networks and digital currencies, 5G will affect demand patterns as early as 2018. This Foresight project takes a holistic view of the far-reaching consequences to help IT companies prepare strategies.”
Here are select findings from 451 Research’s Foresight report, The Coming Revolution: 5G and its Impact on IT:
5G is not just another G – it will trigger a wave of innovation to make information and computing power instantaneously available.
5G innovations will spread far and wide – innovation is needed in mobile technology, real-time analytics, edge-of-network datacenters, and new applications and services such as semi-autonomous vehicles, augmented reality and IoT.
5G implementation will be very patchy – deployment will depend on players seeking to leapfrog others; local demand for capabilities not possible on 3G/4G; government intervention; investment; the effectiveness of new technologies at scale; and new business cases involving collaboration of multiple players.
Uncertainty – not all the 5G technologies are proven, especially at scale. Nor is it clear that capabilities such as sub-one-millisecond responses will justify the investment. Areas requiring particular investment are low-latency services, low-power devices and networks, and the ability to support huge numbers of devices.
Governments and operators have differing ambitions for 5G – while many governments, especially in Europe, want to get ahead in 5G and digital living, operators are concerned with shareholder returns. This conflict could lead to the creation of private-public partnerships to raise financing.
X factor – competitive technologies could yet wreck the economics. For example, technologies such as LoRA or Weightless-N could emerge as options for low-bandwidth edge computing for IoT, taking a major driver for 5G off the table.
About Foresight Projects
5G is 451 Research’s first Foresight project, an initiative designed to help IT industry stakeholders identify and consider opportunities and threats presented by new technologies and industry developments at an early stage. Such projects cover the direct impact of a technology, as well as focus on its indirect impact on other technologies across different sectors. 451 Foresight projects include reports, on-site discussion days, and webinars and presentations, as well as commissioned research. Learn more.
Webinar
In this forward looking webinar, 451 Research will discuss the coming generation of wireless technology, known as 5G, and the findings of the recently published report, “The Coming Revolution: 5G and its Impact on IT”. Fresh from Mobile World Congress 2016, the presenters will place 5G in the context of the evolution of both wireless technology and the wider IT market; discuss some of the key drivers and barriers to adoption; and consider how 5G might act as a catalyst to innovation. Register now.
