Over 50 per cent enterprises believe 5G will help customer acquisition

Infosys Knowledge Institute (IKI) today unveiled its market research titled, ‘State of 5G – The Road Ahead’. The research was aimed at gathering insights around the current state of 5G adoption and identifying current and future initiatives that can serve as a guide for business and technology leaders across enterprises in their 5G digital transformation journey.

For this research, Infosys surveyed 850 senior executives representing firms from 12 industries, with annual revenues over the US $1 billion across the US, Europe, UK, Australia and New Zealand. The study gathered empirical evidence to show how mass machine communication is expected to be the most transformed application with 5G and why data security emerges as the most critical barrier to its adoption.

Key findings of the survey:

• A staggering 90 per cent of the respondents are either actively investigating 5G business cases or defining various use cases and service portfolios with ecosystem partners.
• Nearly 60 per cent of respondents mentioned cost and effectiveness as the primary criteria for use case adoption, while 57 per cent of surveyed enterprises are looking at 5G for new revenue streams.
• Over 50 per cent of enterprises are looking for 5G use cases that can help them disrupt the market or drive their brand forward
• Data security (59 per cent), finding the right talent (57 per cent), and device readiness (57 per cent) were identified as key barriers in 5G adoption.
• Industry-wise, Energy and Utilities call out Integration while Manufacturing mentions virtualized 5G core deployment as key challenges
• Maintenance of the new technology (47 per cent) and defining a roadmap for AI and ML technology advancements (33 per cent) emerged as key challenges post-implementation
• Nearly 50 per cent of enterprises firmly believe that system integrators play a vital role in 5G deployment.
• 50 per cent of respondents cited that mass machine communication is expected to undergo a major transformation, followed by ultra-reliable and low latency services (48 per cent) and enhanced cellular broadband (43 per cent).

State of 5G across industries:

• Consumer Retail and Logistics (CRL) and Energy and Utilities (E&U) industries are leaders in 5G strategy with experiments around In-Store Experience and Smart Grids respectively. There is also traction in interactive experiences around media delivery, smart spaces, and remote healthcare.
• Telecom industry is driving more use case experimentation (57 percent) that can help them disrupt the market.
• Supply side industries have migrated beyond the business case stage, focusing more on prototyping. On the other hand, industries on the demand side are driven by the cautious nature of users while contemplating business cases.
• While standards organizations are seen as the preferred partners in 5G evolution among nearly 50 percent respondents, understanding of 5G and seamless transitioning capability were called out as the key partner selection criteria.