The announcement on December 17 of the provisional winners of 5G licences is expected to kick off the creation of a whole range of new services and business opportunities in Cyprus.
The full benefits of the new technology will become obvious once an eco-system of applications and solutions is built around it, able to provide changes to our everyday lives, including smart cities, precision farming, internet of things and many other applications, as one industry source noted.
The scale of the benefits offered is vast: wireless technology specialist Qualcomm expects the transition to 5G will boost global GDP by $3 trillion, providing over 22 million jobs by 2035.
“The existence of the network alone does not provide the advanced applications, it just provides for the enabling connectivity. Businesses and industries need to take advantage of it to offer better services to their clients, to reduce their costs and become more efficient,” the industry source commented.
Deputy minister of research, innovation and digital policy Kyriacos Kokkinos told the Cyprus Mail that there are both business opportunities created by 5G as well as a whole new generation of services.
“There are two aspects. First, 5G will provide much faster connectivity, to download real-time video, for example, and connectivity that is truly crystal clear, with zero latency will spearhead innovation for new services,” he said. “I’m not just talking about smartphones for the individual, but for all sectors of business. For example, the healthcare sector will see much improved technology for remote diagnostics, telemedicine, or real time intervention by doctors for services. We’ll also see new business models, concepts currently in the process of creation, like next generation mobile applications.”
The second aspect, he said, will be a new generation of services made available because of the new capabilities of 5G.
“Think about mobility solutions, traffic management for cars, real-time connected security or diagnostics or traffic information. Many services of this type don’t work so well in 4G, but all that will be history once 5G is available.”
Source: cyprus-mail.com
