All we do is talk about 5G, of its potential, of the way it will revolutionize the lives of all of us and, why not, of the bizarre conspiracy theses created ad hoc to discourage progress. The fact is that, despite the lively debate underway, most companies still show little awareness of the issue. This was stated by the Politecnico di Milano (Polimi) in the context of the survey conducted by the5G & Beyond Observatory of the School of Management presented during the online conference "5G: an ecosystem to be built".
5G AND ENTERPRISES
According to a survey conducted by the Observatory on 328 end user companies and 222 ICT companies, only 24% of the former - the end users of services enabled by 5G - and 28% of the latter have a solid knowledge of the technological characteristics and potential of the new networks. Not only that, only one company out of five (20%) is taking action to exploit its potential, while the remaining 80% continues to remain stationary.
On the contrary, the sector that appears most ready is that of services, with 26% of accommodation companies, followed by PA and Healthcare (20% of accommodation companies) and manufacturing (15%). The ICT sector companies are doing well, with 52% of companies having started initiatives or feel they are experts on the subject.
“5G is a revolution with many possible applications in many sectors, from smart cities to manufacturing, from logistics to agriculture, from transport to healthcare, just to name a few, and with potential benefits for citizens, businesses and public administrations – he says Marta Valsecchi, director of the 5G & Beyond Observatory -. But for this to become a reality, there is an ecosystem still to be built, working above all on the development of 5G knowledge, skills and culture, still lacking even among ICT companies. And then increasing efforts and investments to implement the network infrastructure necessary to make it work and rethinking a value chain that opens up to collaboration with players from other ecosystems and creates high-value vertical services for user companies”.
5G AND CONSUMERS
And what about individuals? “One in four Italian consumers, among internet users, has purchased or intends to buy a smartphone that supports the 5G network, 34% are considering the purchase, while 41% are not interested. Among the latter, the main obstacles are satisfaction with the current device (62%), too high costs (28%), lack of coverage in one's own city (19%) and concern for any negative effects on health (13%) ”, reads the Polimi report which also underlines how fake news has left a trace, albeit limited, influencing about 10% of consumers.
Among those who instead perceive the advantages of 5G, the interest concerns above all the higher data transfer speed (72%), the possibility of working better remotely (38%), watching 4K video (30%), home automation (25%) and online gaming (23%). The objects with which consumers are most interested in seeing interactions are smart home devices (55%), connected cars (37%), augmented and virtual reality viewers (30%), wearable devices for sports and wellness (27%) and drones (19%).
APPLICATIONS AND POTENTIAL OF 5G
“The new 5G networks represent a clear break with previous generations – he says Antonio Capone, scientific director of the 5G & Beyond Observatory -. For the first time we have a system that can work on different points and which allows us to improve, based on the application, access speed, energy consumption, connection reliability and the number of connected devices. The innovations that will have the most significant impact on the relationship between the telco supply chain and the economic sectors that can benefit from 5G applications are Edge Computing, which allows the system to become a computing platform for user applications, and the Network slicing, which allows you to create multiple virtual networks on the same infrastructure with dedicated services and resources".
To date, 122 trials have been conducted in our country. The most widespread concern remote monitoring (35%), used above all in the smart city sector, for example with mobility management systems, smart parking, intelligent lighting and intelligent bins for waste collection, and in agriculture, to keep I control the crops and receive alerts in the event of anomalous situations. Other areas of application are healthcare, with the continuous analysis of the vital parameters of patients and athletes, and predictive maintenance in large distributed infrastructures such as railways, monitored with sensors or drones.
The second largest group of trials has instead to do with the improvement of the user experience (20%): media and video in 4k, tourism and augmented reality, education and telemedicine. Surveillance and security applications follow (16%), Remote Operations (13%), connected and smart vehicles (9%).
As regards the potential benefits, the Polimi observatory has created a model that estimates the benefits in two specific sectors: Remote Assistance and Remote Control. “In both cases – explains the report – there are both tangible and intangible benefits. As regards the former, greater productivity has been found, because the machine's downtime decreases, and more daily interventions, without travel costs, with fewer CO2 emissions, as well as the possibility of completing the execution of a service even in case of impediments to travel and the greater satisfaction of companies, operators and customers". Among the intangible benefits, on the other hand, there are customer satisfaction, the improvement of the company image, the possible reduction of training costs and the increase in operator satisfaction for a greater involvement in critical processes and for the upgrade of its skills.
