TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
What can 5G do for you and your business?
Change Size
Illustration. (Shutterstock/jamesteohart)
A
s developed countries like the United States, China and South Korea lead the charge to a widespread roll out of 5G, countries in Southeast Asia are also working hard to take advantage of 5G’s benefits in the development of its respective countries.
Business as well have tremendous opportunity to improve its technology capabilities for internal business processes and product or software offerings.
A sharp increase in internet users and smartphone owners in Southeast Asian countries has helped to support improvements in tech infrastructures in these countries – as internet and social media penetration and mobile connectivity percentages from 2018 illustrate. Research suggests that this trend will only continue over the next few years.
All countries are moving toward commercial rollouts of 5G networks in the next few years. The Ericsson Mobility report forecasts that the first commercial 5G services will become available in the region by mid-year, with 5G subscriptions accounting for 12 percent of the total connections base by 2024.
The 5G technology is expected to simplify network infrastructure and lower deployment costs, which is ideal for ultra-reliable, low latency communications. It is also anticipated to be able to support billions of connected devices with diversified requirements, expanding the flexibility and agility beyond purpose-built Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Networks. The network will provide the infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI), particularly real-time analytics through edge processing, and also facilitate rapid access to cloud resources for the telecom network.
5G is not only building on an evolutionary growth in bandwidth, but also better use of and access to spectrum within low-, mid- and high-frequency bands, and improved connection reliability. 5G New Radio (NR) supports a variety of frequency bands with far greater bandwidth. For example, low-band spectrum (below 1GHz) provides coverage across a large area that is excellent for broad LTE coverage in regional and rural environments as well as in-building. Mid-band spectrum (between 2 and 5 GHz) delivers mobile broadband such as TDD 3.5 GHz.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam made trial licenses available for 5G in the range of 2575–2615 MHz, 3700–3800 MHz and 26.5–27.5 GHz. Thailand, on the other hand, passed regulation recalling unused spectrum in the 1500 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2600 MHz bands, to reallocate for 5G services via auction. Regulators in Thailand also announced that by the end of 2019, it will terminate 2G services to open up spectrum for 5G services.
