Beyond Smartphones: The 5G Future

ST Liew President of Taiwan & Southeast Asia, Qualcomm

- Zachary Chan

Let’s start with something simple. At the Smart City and IoT Summit in Taipei, you said that the impact of 5G broadband would be as big as the inven on of electricity. How so? I think the paradigm shift that we all have to get used to with 5G is that it’s no longer just a “G” thing. It’s not like 3G to 4G where you saw the smartphone become the de facto ambassador of the service. 5G is much, much more than that. In fact, a lot of the things that 5G will enable are beyond the smartphone; things that you as a consumer won’t even see, but will benefit from.

The factory that utilises 5G for their intelligent IoT system that makes your product at the end of the day, down to the supermarket or department store where your experience of shopping will be different. If you asked me to sit down and articulate what is possible on 5G, I couldn’t do that, because a lot of these things are not even there yet, simply because 5G touches on so many things. And that is why I say it’s like electricity.

What are some of these things 5G will enable beyond smartphones?