LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS SHANGHAI: Sangchul Lee, CEO of Korean number three operator LG Uplus, coined a new phrase – the Internet of Thinking Machines or IoTM – and then spelt out that 5G means goodbye to voice services.

While today we access networks of machines controlled by sensors, or the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G will mean a network of brains, replacing human thinking, posited the LG chief. The term he used for this phenomenon is the Internet of Thinking Machines.

And one feature of this scenario is the disappearance of voice services: “Video will replace voice. In fact, video is the next voice. Complexity will grow very fast. 5G will support low latency, which is particularly important for mission critical stuff like driverless cars and telemedicine,” said LG’s CEO.

The number of devices which users will be able to access via IoTM will multiply on a huge scale. Typically, in 2010 a subscriber was controlling four devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop and e-book reader, for instance).

Fast forward to 2015 and that number has reached 20 devices for some users, with early forms of IoT. But come 2020 and the total number of devices worldwide will reach 100 billion, thanks to the mass sensors deployed across a smart city. Although the LG executive was not specific, presumably he meant the number of devices accessible by users, rather than under their control.