OK. So I will admit right from the start that this is not entirely about payments. However, if you read between the lines of this GSMA report,you will start to see the enormous opportunities for seamless, frictionless payments – aside from that, you all love tech.
The combination of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), smart platforms and the Internet of Things (IoT) form the basis of what we call ‘Intelligent Connectivity’.
With more than 5.1 billion unique subscribers and nearly 9 billion connections globally, mobile is already one of the most widely deployed technology platforms ever. However, Intelligent Connectivity takes this further and marks the beginning of an era of highly contextualised and personalised experiences, underpinned by ubiquitous hyper connectivity.
It is set to impact almost every aspect of our daily lives from the way we consume entertainment to the way in which we learn and interact with colleagues. It will give people the information they need in an instant making our lives more productive and efficient.
It will impact how entire industries innovate and operate, how societies interact and thrive and how economies flourish.
We will watch live sports coverage in ultra-high definition via Augmented or Virtual Reality headsets and see the game from an athlete’s perspective; our cities will deploy traffic control systems that use 5G connectivity to instruct vehicles when to slow down and when to accelerate removing the need for traffic lights and speed cameras.
We will see smart platforms powered by (AI) and machine learning will enable us to make improved decisions and deliver higher quality products and services. 5G is already on the way with commercial launches expected this year in the United States, China, South Korea and the UAE.
GSMA Intelligence forecasts that there will be more than 1.3 billion 5G connections globally by 2025, covering 40% of the global population. 5G networks will underpin this revolution.
It is an opportunity to create an agile, purpose-built network tailored to the different needs of citizens and the economy. It will improve network capacity, throughput and responsiveness.
Underpinned by hyper connectivity and low power wide area IoT networks, the fusion of these groundbreaking technologies will change everything, improving our lives in many different ways and intelligently connecting everyone and everything to better future.
The potent combination of 5G, artificial intelligence, smart platforms and the Internet of Things will change the world. Drawing on interviews with mobile operators, investors and analysts, this report describes some of the exciting services and experiences that could be enabled by intelligent connectivity:
Entertainment gets rich and social – With 5G, digital entertainment is set become both richer and more social.
