Manila, the Philippines – A roundtable on the state of 5G in the Philippines hosted by Nokia’s newly-appointed Head of the Philippines, Carlos Reyes, explores how 5G will boost the nation’s digital transformation efforts and help it achieve sustainable growth during Industry 4.0.
With the Philippines being one of Southeast Asia’s earliest movers within the 5G race, Nokia during its roundtable shared key insights of how 5G will serve as one of the prime enablers of the Philippines’ digital transformation plans. These are particularly in relation to how applications of the next generation in connectivity can transform the country’s industries, enterprises, and society to prepare the nation for the next phase of industry.
“5G will bring a quantum leap in low latency and ultra-reliability connectivity that was impossible with previous technologies. Such is the promise of its transformation that, even with the socio-economic challenges caused by the ongoing COVID-19 situation, 5G adoption across Southeast Asia continues to gain momentum. This is evidenced by the Philippines as one of Southeast Asia’s first countries to roll-out 5G – meaning that the nation’s industries, enterprises and people are especially poised to tap into the growth and innovation prospects that the next generation of connectivity holds,” said Carlos Reyes, Head of the Philippines at Nokia.
During its roundtable, Nokia explained that 5G will be particularly transformative for the Philippines’ asset-heavy industries – namely those that were not able to join the initial ‘digital revolution’ but are now tasked to prepare for the oncoming Industry 4.0 by digitalizing their processes and driving automation. To achieve new, unprecedented levels of digital transformation, Nokia explained that such industries will need to facilitate connections between sensors, machines and workers, all of which require mission-critical, wireless networking solutions.
“5G is set to be a game-changer for the Philippines’s industries and enterprises. It represents a significant evolution over current LTE solutions, as this next generation in connectivity will empower organisations to achieve the new levels of reliability, security, multi-user capacity performance, and mobility needed for them to make the best utility out of Industry 4.0 technologies and applications. 5G also builds on LTE vertical differentiating capabilities – with crucial enhancements specifically relevant for industry – to enable it to unlock unprecedented productivity gains and connect all elements of industries and enterprises,” added Reyes.
According to the 5G Readiness Report by Nokia Bell Labs, Nokia’s award-winning research arm, enterprises at an advanced level of 5G adoption are growing faster than their peers – having witnessed a net +10% increase in productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, featured during the roundtable, also highlighted that while 86% of decision-makers said they have some form of 5G strategy, only 15% are currently investing in its implementation.
Today, Nokia is a global leader in 5G. The company has 165 commercial 5G deals and powering 66 live 5G operator networks. Out of these, Nokia has 20 commercial 5G deals across the Asia Pacific and Japan region – where the company is playing an active role in bringing the region to the 5G future, while also combining its network and security expertise to create security solutions for 5G networks. In the Philippines, Nokia has already formed 5G deals with local mobile operators Globe Telecom and DITO Telecommunity to expand on the delivery of 5G services nationwide.
Nokia has also been helping to build a nationwide digital ecosystem primed to take advantage of the benefits of 5G and related applications, such as working with digital services provider Converge ICT to provide ultra-broadband services for Philippine consumers and business. Nokia is also collaborating with mobile operator PLDT and its subsidiary Smart Communications to launch of enterprise-specific internet of things (IoT) services across the country and the deployment of comprehensive service orchestration and assurance solutions across PLDT’s and Smart Communication’s nationwide network.
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