LIVE FROM 5G WORLD, LONDON: Operators must clearly highlight the business benefits of 5G to win over small- and medium-sized enterprises which otherwise may turn to other technologies, industry specialists warned.

During a keynote session, CEO of cloud company ASOCS Gilad Garon (pictured) said business owners needed a “model they can digest” for 5G as they were essentially competing with Wi-Fi technologies.

“After you get rid of all the fluff, you’ve got to show mid- and small-size enterprises why this [5G] is better, that’s going to be the main challenge.”

“If you’re going to be successful in B2B you have to think enterprise, you have to think IT, you have to think DevOps. You have to think cheap and thin.”

Garon also pointed to a problem with current 5G noise ignoring immediate use cases, noting: “If we keep sticking to 3GPP engineers thinking about remote surgery over 5G, this industry has a big problem.”

Deutsche Telekom SVP 5G campus networks Antje Williams noted a differentiating feature of mobile which should be highlighted is the strong security capabilities. However, she conceded there was still work to do with customers to educate them about the new network technology.

“The actuality of what 5G can do has to be learned not only by us, but also our customers.”

Private networks
In Germany, the case for 5G in major enterprises has been the subject of debate, with authorities setting aside an allocation of spectrum able to be claimed by specific industrial players.

Williams noted there could still be a strong operator opportunity even with this model: “At the end we expect they [companies acquiring private spectrum] will come to those operators or others that can manage a network, that can build it up.”

“There is not so much interest in doing everything by themselves as they do not want to move into our business really, they want to know what’s happening in their networks and shield their networks.”