Time to monetise 5G through differentiated services: Ericsson exec

Telecom operators should build businesses around 5G through XR devices and smart glasses, says Ericsson's APAC CTO Magnus Ewerbring, who predicts 5G will dominate for over a decade

To monetise 5G technology, mobile operators, businesses, and institutions all over the world have begun deploying differentiated 5G solutions, and their time to build businesses is now, according to Magnus Ewerbring, chief technology officer, Asia Pacific (APAC), Ericsson.

 

This is because despite current research on 6G, the dominant mobile technology globally will remain 5G for more than a decade, Ewerbring told Business Standard.

Since its launch in October 2022, 5G service has been rolled out in all states of the country and the number of subscribers has crossed 250 million.

 

However, telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have struggled to monetise the service.

 

Ewerbring said 5G slicing applications had been introduced by T-Mobile in the United States, where it is providing dedicated 5G slices for bodycams worn by people of the New York Police Department.

 

Meanwhile, the National University Hospital in Singapore has developed its own application for surgery, using 5G connectivity and extended reality (XR) lenses, Ewerbring pointed out.

 

“Before surgery, a high-resolution external scan of the patient’s body is done. Once the body is opened up, the XR glasses worn by a surgeon display the exact location of the tumour on the liver. This visual overlay directly guides the surgeon and helps in making precise cuts around it,” Ewerbring said.

He said the time to do a surgery was much reduced, more operations were successful, and fatalities had come down.

 

Within the larger space of smart glasses, Ewerbring said several key players like Ray-Ban had launched various versions of smart glasses. Currently, these glasses are typically connected to a smartphone, which in turn connects to the network. However, the next anticipated development in this technology is to have “everything integrated into the glasses themselves”, he said. 

 

These devices leverage better connectivity to provide new functionalities, such as displaying additional information on the lens when a user looks at something or someone. Users can also ask a question such as what they are seeing, and receive guidance, Ewerbring said. There are no significant concerns regarding regulatory challenges for most use cases related to entertainment and information at present, he added.

 

However, if a device’s services overlap with privacy or security concerns, particularly when recording in public, local regulators might step in, he said.

 

While consumer applications could involve something as simple as someone wearing the glasses and being automatically guided in programming a microwave, Ericsson has begun using these glasses in its factories for inspection. 

 

“You wear the glasses, look at a product, and the system highlights specific areas you need to inspect more carefully,” he said.

 

5G advanced

 

In order to enable these, Ewerbring said Ericsson had issued the updates for 5G Advanced in India.

 

5G Advanced supports advanced applications with enhanced mobility and high reliability as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) that will improve network performance.

 

Key among these is higher support for Reduced Capability (RedCap) devices or 5G-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

 

“RedCap allows for higher bitrates than traditional IoT, which has been very constrained in terms of service. RedCap can offer speeds of up to 100 megabits per second,” he said.

 

However, the decision to activate a specific feature like support for RedCap devices, which benefit wearables such as glasses, is up to the operator, Ewerbring pointed out. These decisions are typically driven by market reasons and align with business goals, he said.

 

 

Despite cost concerns in a price-sensitive market, the affluent upper quarter of the market in India is generating a great interest from many companies that can provide these solutions, Ewerbring said.

 

5G to remain dominant 

Despite ongoing research on 6G, Ewerbring said 5G would remain relevant as the dominant technology for more than a decade. “5G will surpass 4G and become the dominant technology in 2027. From there, give it another five years or so and 5G will hit its peak,” he said.

 

Even if 6G grows as fast as 5G, it will not overtake 5G until around 2037.