Exploring Industry 4.0. I have a chance to stumble upon this Podcast by Futurithmic/Nokia. These are pointers that have caught my attention.
As of this pandemic engulf the world, millions still have ability to work remotely, businesses still trotting along if they are not in critical industry that bear the grunt of the impact. Imagine if the situation would have happened a decade earlier, its impact might have been worse. The very thing that keeps us functioning as business and society is Connectivity.
It is keeping our society functioning, from hospital, logistics hub, factories, government, networks, utilities, etc.
Connectivity improves our lives significantly. It helps bring forth solutions to people like the Telemedicine example he gave “ Connectivity allows physicians to treat more patients more effectively, often in their own homes.”
Connectivity makes it easier for small businesses to sell their products through e-commerce, digital marketplaces, etc.
Provides guidance to farmers, through sensors telling them (even small scale farmers) exactly when and where to water their crops. So there’s so much that can be done with connectivity.
Government’s role is about ensuring that we look more long term as opposed to short term. So when you look at spectrum, let’s try to give spectrum at an affordable cost to service providers because then you invest in the consumers if you invest in the long term.
My view is that Government take the view of higher cost spectrum, then suite of value added services might be delay / make un-available due to fund shortage or maybe cost for such services will be higher making it less pro-consumers.
Consumers who work remotely or want to work remotely in the future will prioritize connectivity. The example given on how South Korea’s adoption of 5G “5 million subscribers in just around six months”.
Heavy industry is often seen as a laggard in the adoption of new technologies but that doesn’t seem to be the case for Industry 4.0. Where use cases quoted like ports, mines etc are adopting the Industry 4.0 model.
Some use cases shared in the podcast like “cloud gaming, digital twinning of your factory plant in the cloud and remotely managing things from there, that need ultra-low latency and so 5G then comes in.“ These high speed advance connectivity will also drive other cases like AR/VR based services, new devices form factors, etc.
He was sharing how “Network slicing is going to be fantastic. Of course, it needs to be done with a common orchestration, zero-touch automation. You don’t want to make it complex. You don’t want it to be complicated to the point that you have to do a lot of local systems integration. So think of it as just multiple MVNO type slices.” Giving further example of partnership between enterprises to deliver services through agreed SLA, sharing those Network slices to provide new digital services. (i.e. Driverless Cars, Cloud gaming, etc.)
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About the author
Stephen Chan is the founder of ASIA Technology Ventures. As a creative and entrepreneurial thinker with deep knowledge in both business and technology, he has accomplished more than 2 decades of high-growth businesses, developed revolutionary Go-To-Market strategies, led & built teams across Asia Pacific. He also has strong understanding of technology like SaaS/Cloud infrastructure, mobile apps, developer tools, blockchain, artificial intelligence, etc. Asia Technology Ventures was founded to help Asia's businesses transform, scale and compete beyond their comfort zone.
This is driven by his personal belief that "Success is a journey, not a destination", in-line with his pursuit of helping others as the foundation for true, happy, and meaningful living.
