LIVE FROM 5G ASIA, SINGAPORE: 5G will be an even bigger transition in technology than both 3G and 4G as the broader ecosystem figures out what to do with the technology, Mike Wright, MD of networks at Telstra (pictured), said.

The executive told delegates: “3G was a big transition and took a while for the technology to stabilise. But not only that, it probably took just as long for our customers and industry to realise what to do with it. These are not just journeys of technology, but also journeys of awareness as industry gets their head around the technology and what they are going through that with it.”

Telstra, Australia’s largest mobile operator, is today going through such a process with IoT: “You have a conversation with a farmer today about IoT and he’ll look at you like you have two heads. In about five years there won’t be a farmer who hasn’t connected everything,” Wright said.

“It’s about educating and building up all these technologies.”

Wright explained 5G will be one of the hardest changes implemented by Telstra, referring to the technolgy as a series of waves: “We need to start paddling early so we can catch the first wave.”

He  also believes 5G won’t exist if it’s not built on 4G.

Why 5G?
Wright said it is often hard to understand why another technology generation is needed, noting each new generation of mobile technology was the subject of such debate.

Looking at how 4G consumption is impacting the network, he said the industry is seeing more complexity and scale emerge as media consumption goes through the roof, with everything stitched together in clouds.

“We’ve come from a world where mobile was a convenient thing that might work sometimes to something when it stops working it fundamentally upsets all of our customers and almost stops society,” he said.

“The world has fundamentally shifted to 4G, so you don’t need a lot of imagination to see why we need 5G. We have to start thinking early enough to prepare for the technology, which takes a bit of imagination.”

He added it is good to see the world lining up behind the candidate spectrum bands for 5G, such as the 3.5GHz band.