GSMA THRIVE NORTH AMERICA: Niklas Heuveldop, president and CEO of Ericsson North America (pictured), predicted 5G could boost US GDP by $500 billion, highlighting mining and manufacturing sectors as likely to reap significant benefits.

Heuveldop used a keynote to explain the technology could create 3 million jobs in the country, tipping his hat to US operators which he said are expected to pump $275 billion into deployments.

Giving the mining sector as an example, he noted use cases studied by the vendor could deliver net benefits of approximately $57 billion per year to the industry and $4 billion for service providers.

And smart manufacturing uses could cut up to $6 million from annual operating costs of a factory.

“We see $50 billion opportunity for our service provider customers to provide the connectivity solutions in the smart manufacturing space”, Heuveldop stated.

Across the consumer field, he flagged gaming and sports as having the highest potential, with the former presenting a $150 billion opportunity for operators.

Climate action
Heuveldop also highlighted the potential for 5G networks and AI to cut global carbon emissions, with a reduction of more than 15 per cent possible. As a result, he was hopeful the ICT industry could have a “phenomenal” potential in “contributing to the exponential roadmap for climate action”.

In the energy sector, by leveraging AI, sensors and asset condition monitoring “you can secure the efficient production of energy” in a highly distributed fashion, including by technologies for tracking performance of energy production sites, he explained.

And the mining sector could employ smart technology to control air-conditioning, which Heuveldop said accounted for around 50 per cent of current total energy consumption.