LIVE FROM HUAWEI MOBILE BROADBAND FORUM 2016, TOKYO: Mats Granryd, director general of GSMA, pointed to the end of 2019 for the potential availability of commercial 5G solutions, while highlighting the industry association’s role in bringing the technology to market.

“We at the GSMA, we are working with our members and our partners on the strategic, the commercial, and the regulatory development of the 5G ecosystem, including identification and alignment of the spectrum that is needed,” he said.

“We believe that commercial solutions will be available sometime at the end of 2019, or beginning of 2020,” he said.

5G, Granryd said, will be used for “many new and exciting services,” including low latency remote activities, augmented reality, immersive internet and more.

The IoT market was also identified as “another big area”, enabling the creation of new revenue-generating services for consumers and businesses. He predicted “a world where everything that benefits from being connected, will be connected to the internet”.

Mobile Connect
The GSMA chief also highlighted other opportunities for operators, such as Mobile Connect, which enables customers to create and manage a universal digital identity via a single login. Today, 42 operators in 22 countries worldwide are implementing this, with an addressable market of nearly 3 billion customers.

And the role of mobile in supporting social and economic development was also on the agenda.

“Mobile is addressing a whole range of social challenges, such as barriers to digital and financial inclusion, gender inequality and unregistered populations. Mobile can help by providing critical services to underserved people, such as mobile money, mobile health, mobile agri, mobile education and many, many other types of services,” he said.