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As enterprises prepare for a post-crisis world, 5G is shaping up to be the key to digital resiliency for enterprises. Yet adoption remains a challenge for many businesses. Singtel’s 5G GENIE presents a solution: a plug-and-play standalone 5G network in a box.
The past few years have seen an increasing buzz around 5G. Technology leaders have often portrayed it as the nascent technology that will change the world—and for good reason.
As we are entering an age of driverless vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT), ultra-low latency communication between numerous devices is crucial. Compared to current networks, 5G promises 10x to 100x faster speed, 100x the number of connected devices per unit area, 1,000x the bandwidth, and many more1.
Singtel has helped to spearhead the adoption of 5G in Singapore. It launched 5G trial services in September last year2, encouraging businesses to compete and innovate at the forefront of the digital revolution.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, digital innovation often becomes the deciding factor for whether a business could survive during the crisis. Many experts have noted the acceleration in the digital economy that the pandemic brings3. There is an increasing reliance on digital solutions, such as effective remote working environments, efficient logistics systems, secure financial transactions, reliable digital content delivery, and so on.
Digital challenges continue to be relevant as we look ahead in the future. As we begin to recover from the pandemic, a new question emerges: What kind of world will we be entering?
The sentiments, behaviour, and demands of customers and the workforce alike are unlikely to revert to those of pre-pandemic times. The push towards a reliable digital enterprise in the name of productivity, efficiency, and resilience in a post-crisis world will become more and more of an imperative4.
This is where 5G technology comes in. As a digital strategy, businesses may deploy a 5G network to support a full-on IoT infrastructure. It can also enhance existing ones and allow the most crucial devices of an enterprise to respond and communicate with little to no latency. Either way, a robust 5G infrastructure will provide immense leverage for businesses looking to stay competitive in a post-crisis world.
The digital capabilities of 5G would allow organisations to rapidly adapt to business disruptions. They can restore and enhance legacy business operations, as well as capture and capitalise on new opportunities brought forth by the changing conditions. These capabilities comprise what is known as digital resiliency, and 5G is quickly becoming an important pillar therein.
Devices connected to a 5G infrastructure would be able to react 250x faster than a human being. It’s not difficult to imagine how beneficial, or even lifesaving, this response rate is. Driverless cars, health monitoring systems, industrial applications, logistical drones and robotics, up to Virtual and Augmented Reality systems will function at an unprecedented rate of safety and efficiency.
Digital trading will be instant, secure, and ubiquitous. Predicting and preventing equipment downtime will be much more manageable. Optimising logistical fleets will become much easier. And these are only the beginning. Indeed, 5G technology will open the gates to massive adoption of cutting-edge technologies.
But how would an organisation begin its process of 5G adoption? After all, a 5G infrastructure is exactly that—an infrastructure. It would require setting up the 5G network and connected devices, not to mention programmers who are familiar with 5G, low-latency applications, and cloud computing.
Without an in-house technical expert in 5G, it sure seems like a daunting, costly task. What if a business simply wants to test specific 5G use cases for agile and rapid development? What if an organisation is simply looking to conduct IoT or VR-related hackathons? Not everyone taking part necessarily wishes to install a dedicated, permanent 5G infrastructure, especially not before they test out the benefits of 5G for themselves.
Fortunately, Singtel’s latest 5G innovation provides the solution to this problem. Enter GENIE, a 5G-in-a-box solution to quickly set up and deploy a mini standalone indoor 5G network within one hour or less. With a simple suitcase comprising a 5G network control kit and a standing mount with a 5G radio antenna, GENIE is a plug-and-play portable 5G system that requires no more than a standard power socket to run (and a window to determine its GPS coordinates).
Use cases of ultra-low latency applications can be tested without the need to send trial data through an external network to be processed in the cloud. It’s all the benefits of 5G within a single box (view infographic), no heavy infrastructure investment necessary.
“By bringing 5G right into the customers’ premises, GENIE can help enterprises to quickly validate their solutions with their partners or verify the performance of their end-to-end use cases with no installation cost,” says Dennis Wong, Vice President, 5G Enterprise and Cloud, Group Enterprise at Singtel.
In other words, GENIE enables virtually anyone to get their foot in the 5G door, gearing themselves up for digital resiliency according to their specific strengths and needs.
It is becoming increasingly clear that a 5G strategy is indispensable in business leadership. As market demands, customer behaviour, and workforce habits shift, so too must organisations adapt.
Remote-friendliness and logistical efficiency will be considered a requirement rather than a novelty. Digital safety, responsiveness, and digital immersion will be the norm of our very near future. An ultra-low latency communication network is key in building the backbone of a powerful digital resiliency, a strength that enterprises will require to continue pushing forward in digital innovation.
With GENIE, everybody can start to develop digital resiliency by exploring and testing out the possibilities that 5G adoption will open for their organisation. Singtel’s 5G GENIE enables this testing in the comfort of one’s own office, per agile and rapid development principles.
With GENIE, businesses will be ready to build the best 5G strategy to keep them ahead of the curve.
Speak to us to discover what GENIE can do for your business.
1 Thales Group, 5G technology and use cases (speed, use cases and rollout), 2021.
2 The Straits Times, Singtel launches 5G trial services in Singapore, second telco after StarHub to do so, 2020.
3 BDO USA, COVID-19 is accelerating the rise of the digital economy, May 2020.
4 PwC, Beyond COVID-19: Five key strategic priorities for a post-crisis world, 2020.
Get the latest digest on business and technology trends straight to your inbox.
Get the latest digest on business and technology trends straight to your inbox.