Most Firms Bet Big on 5G but Wary of Network Readiness: Gartner

Betting big on Internet of Things (IoT)-based communications and video analytics/streaming, nearly two-third of organisations globally plan to deploy the 5G technology by 2020 but are wary of the lack of readiness of communications service providers (CSPs) in making 5G networks ready by then, a Gartner survey said on Wednesday.

The IoT communications remains the most popular target use case for 5G, with 59 percent of the organisations surveyed expecting 5G-capable networks to be widely used for the purpose. The next most popular use case is video, which was chosen by 53 percent of the respondents, said the "5G use case and adoption survey" by Gartner.

"In terms of 5G adoption, end-user organisations have clear demands and expectations for 5G use cases," said Sylvain Fabre, Senior Research Director at Gartner. 

"However, one major issue that 5G users face is the lack of readiness of communications service providers (CSPs). Their 5G networks are not available or capable enough for the needs of organisations," he lamented. 

To fully exploit 5G, a new network topology is required, including new network elements such as edge computing, core network slicing and radio network densification. 

"In the short to medium term, organisations wanting to leverage 5G for use cases such as IoT communications, video, control and automation, fixed wireless access and high-performance edge analytics cannot fully rely on 5G public infrastructure for delivery," explained Fabre.

Gartner predicted that by 2022, half of the CSPs that have completed commercial 5G deployments will fail to monetise their back-end technology infrastructure investments, due to systems not fully meeting 5G use case requirements. 

"Most CSPs will only achieve a complete end-to-end 5G infrastructure on their public networks during the 2025-to-2030 timeframe as they focus on 5G radio first, then core slicing and edge computing," said Fabre.

CSPs will initially focus on consumer broadband services, which may delay investments in edge computing and core slicing, which are much more relevant and valuable to 5G projects.

The meet the demands, technology product managers planning 5G infrastructure solutions should focus on 5G networks that offer not only 5G radio but also core slicing and edge computing infrastructure and services for private networks, suggested Gartner.