Globally most of the human life has impacted because of COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.
Innovation in mobile technology and the internet is a key supporting factor to be connected to quarantined people during such a pandemic situation. People also get connected with Healthcare specialists and Doctors through Telehealth platforms. Nearly 40% of the working community is working remotely from home. There is a drastic change in consumer priorities. Most people are skeptical to invest in the latest handset/Mobile rather concerned about their wellbeing personally and financially.
The year 2020 has a hard hit because of the corona outbreak globally, but will this impact 5G Service Providers and Users?
Most of the government administrations have announced welfare measures to provision economies which include low-interest loans, income subsidies, EMI Breaks, and tax breaks. The UK government announced $392.5 billion support through loans for businesses and the US Government has a trillion-dollar incentive plan including direct payments to citizens.
Even though Govt. bodies are taking multiple actions, the income for not only enterprises but also consumers will fall. The stock market faces a huge dip. Travel and global tourism industries have devastated.
Meanwhile, 5G Rollouts will face the hardest hit in the global mobile industry. It is a real fact that consumer behavioral adaption made mobile inevitable, but most will not be in a position to afford or invest more on new mobile devices and 5G services.
What is 5G?
5G is the latest standard of the wireless mobile network with advanced and faster telecommunications and mobile connectivity with higher wave frequency than its predecessor 4G. The most awaited network upgrade after its launch in 2019.
Declined consumer interest on 5G:
According to a consumer survey conducted by GSMA, the interest and priority of getting upgraded to 5G are very much limited. The survey also includes nearly 80% of consumers in the UK has no plan to upgrade, while France and German consumers were not even aware of 5G technology.
Consumers and enterprises are bothered about their financial future in the current scenario rather than new investments and extra expenditures. Nearly 40% of US consumers are worried about personal finance impact by the corona outbreak according to a survey by Ipsos. Where it is 56% in Japan, 40% in Australia and 41% in Italy.
More than these primary impacts, there is a considerable impact on interest in buying a new mobile too. Most of the Prospective events like Mobile Conferences, Sports, and entertainment events around the globe are suspended which could have been generating interest on 5G. Olympics2020 Japan, Mobile world congress, and a lot many entertainment events have been canceled for the first time in its history.
Coverage and Device Availability Will Continue To Be a Barrier as Rollouts Are Delayed
5G network technology has been officially introduced in around 30 markets globally. But, in most of the cases, coverage has been restricted to small-medium and heavily populated regions. Network Operators and service providers in the early stage of implementing in markets suffer badly on expanding network coverage for better service to the customer. Where, 2020 was expected to be the year of the 5G smartphone, which is not even in priorities now.
Most of the chipsets and parts used for manufacturing and assembling both mobile devices and network devices are from China. While the whole world now seems to be facing the terrible impact of Covid- 19 outbreak. The month-on-month smartphone shipments dropping 40 percent in January and a further 56 percent in February, the impacts on productivity resulting from enforced factory closures will be felt for some time.
Work from home, social distancing and worldwide lockdown initiatives by governments to control the spread of COVID-19 lead more usage on home communications networks by consumers. Operators face a shortage of resources to maintain existing operations rather than deploying 5G Services.
Is 5G a Warrior Against The Coronavirus?
A Pandemic and panic situation like corona outbreak can be a driver for technological innovation and despite the challenges facing the industry, 5G is in some cases already proving its worth.
Huawei installed a 5G network in Wuhan City, China in a matter of 3 days for the specialist hospital. The COVID infectious patients there are taken care of by 5G enables robots with minimal medical staffs as a preventive measure. Also, medical equipment was controlled and operated remotely or from a specified distance using 5G network implementation. Other patients were also more efficiently handled by local physicians using Telehealth and Video Health consultation.
Around a billion people work from home being isolated to break the spread of COVID-19. Internet connectivity enables to continue work without a need of a workplace. 5G can enable enhanced virtual meeting experience with better network capacities and stability meeting the current user traffic.
Not limited to work and productivity, 5G will play a key role in staying connected through video conferencing with family and friends isolated in different countries and places. Entertainment is a vital resource to have kids and school goers engaged themselves with Movies, Cinema, Cartoon and Web Series and some of those could be enabled by 5G.
Conclusion:
The COVID-19 outbreak and the drastically increased remote work mode has moved forward for the need of faster and stable 5G technologies. But unfortunately global pandemic keeps the supply chain down which delays further expansion and implementation of 5G widely.
For a free consultation on IoT, Enterprise or Telecom Service, contact us at sales@thinkpalm.com
Author Bio:
Sukumar Sasidharan: Sukumar is the business development lead at ThinkPalm Technologies, with 10 years of industry experience in sales and business development.
