The President and Chief Executive Officer of Ericsson, Börje Ekholm has urged government across the globe to support the deployment of 5G networks, describing it as a critical natural resources.
Ekholm, who stated this in a keynote fireside chat at the 2018 Mobile World Congress called The Foundations of The Digital Economy, also calls for the right regulatory regime, which will allow for the rapid build out of sites necessary for 5G.
According to him, 5G will be a commercial reality for a couple reasons, of which the first would be data traffic. “We need 5G to bring cost per gigabyte down, so it is important for governments to see networks as critical natural resources,” he said.
He noted that government needs to realize that early movers in new technology gain a benefit, especially in the case of 4G, where they get higher average revenue per user and higher market share.
He said 5G will dramatically change our lives, as it has moved from buzzword to a commercial reality.
While disclosing that Ericsson has signed 38 MoUs and several commercial contracts with service providers, with regards to 5G, Ekholm noted that the future roads are digital highways.
5G, according to Ekholm has been designed to be the industrial internet, with remote control of machinery and maintenance with augmented reality as two prime examples, adding that the consumer will see this too, for instance, in health care and autonomous vehicles where low latency will be a critical factor.
