David Garrity on BNN – 5G: The next wave of mobile and Internet of Things
Updated: Apr 23, 2021
David Garrity, principal at GVA Research joins BNN for a look at 5G, a key focus at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. He talks about how wireless players like Samsung and Nokia are trying to get ahead in the 5G race.
Tech – Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 – Welcomes Nokia’s Return, Son Sees The Singularity & Industry Awaits 5G Advent
MWC, the leading global wireless industry showcase, is underway this week. Apple continues its persistent absence from MWC which allows other vendors the opportunity to enjoy the spotlight. With the fallout from its fiery Galaxy Note 7 debacle still cooling Samsung is relatively quiet, but into the gap comes Nokia with a return to the handset market with the introduction of its “3310” and “Nokia 6” models in collaboration with start-up HMD who has licensed the Nokia brand. Away from handsets, Softbank Chairman Masayoshi Son is discussing investments his $100bn Vision Fund is making in advancing the singularity in which machine intelligence will overtake human intelligence. With the Vision Fund dwarfing the $65bn total in global venture capital and Son already spending $32bn to acquire chip maker ARM Holdings Plc, there is plenty of dry powder to keep early stage company valuations elevated in sectors such as AI. Meanwhile, the wireless industry awaits the advent of the transition to 5G broadband communications standards which promises to increase connection speeds by 10-100x over current 4G standards, a development that will reduce latency and enable the deployment of such applications as driverless cars. However, the timing for 5G large-scale rollout is thought to be 2020 and is estimated to require mobile network infrastructure upgrades on the order of $275bn over 7 years, according to Accenture. The future looks bright, we just need to get there first.