5G to power post-COVID wireless factories

Although COVID-19 initially slowed mobile phone sales in the Asia–Pacific and disrupted supply chains and demand for certain 5G-related end verticals, it also brought about an increase in broadband traffic and 5G use cases — such as South Korea using 5G to live-stream its 2020 elections and China deploying 5G-powered smart city robots.

According to ABI Research, the pandemic will “alert enterprises to the importance of disruption-proofing their businesses using 5G”, with the research company forecasting an APAC 5G digital factory market worth over US$60 billion by 2030.

“5G is here to stay in APAC, with operators in the region showing their commitment through increased capital expenditure (CapEx) for 5G rollouts,” said Kanguri Ling, Research Analyst at ABI Research.

“For example, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom are investing a total of US$173.3 billion on their 5G network by 2025.”

According to Ling, for enterprises and end verticals, “5G will enable smart cities through 5G-based autonomous form factors and 5G-powered autonomous driving.

“5G will also propel an increasingly wireless factory and create new value-based business models for operators in APAC, reducing their profit-reliance on average revenue per user (ARPU).”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Irina