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Ball in govt’s court for 5G rollout, Ericsson says
As Indonesia struggles to catch up with other countries in the 5G rollout, global-telecommunications-firm Ericsson is waiting for the government to make available the frequency band for large-scale fifth-generation cellular networks.
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Need for speed: A worker installs Ericsson telecommunication equipment for 5G cellular services for the Jakarta ePrix championship held in Central Jakarta in June 2022. (Ericsson/-)
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s Indonesia struggles to catch up with other countries in the 5G rollout, global-telecommunications-firm Ericsson is waiting for the government to ensure its frequency-spectrum policy matches the requirements for large-scale fifth-generation cellular networks.
In an interview with The Jakarta Post on Monday, Ericsson top executives expressed confidence that tech firms and users would swiftly embrace 5G technology once the frequency licencing is optimized for the 5G network.
Currently, much of the 3.5 gigahertz band planned for 5G is still used for other purposes.
The 5G standard is seen as the successor of the 4G network as it offers much higher bandwidth with lower latency, which allows for data-intensive applications. Without sufficient transmission speeds, many applications, such as in the internet of things (IoT), would not be possible.
“It is very similar to [...] the offline world, right? A country without roads would very rarely build the fastest cars,” Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm said in the interview after opening the new Ericsson office in South Jakarta.
He noted that, when 4G first became available, many questioned the need for the greater speed and hence for switching from the older 3G network standard. Once 4G was rolled out, however, new applications were developed to make use of the higher bandwidth, and the countries that adopted 4G first reaped most of the benefits.
“Even if you’re late in deploying the infrastructure, you get the use cases, but you don't get the job creation. So, I think that is what one should focus much more on,” he continued.
