In a wide ranging question and answer session last week, Marcus Weldon, Nokia CTO discussed the state of play in 5G. It was pleasant to have a very realistic, “warts and all“, appraisal of the current state of play in 5G and the CSP’s 5G opportunity. This blog highlights some of the key topics covered. 5G consumer market The majority of CSPs are expecting no sustainable ARPU increase based purely on connectivity from the introduction of 5G in the consumer segment. The expectation is that, if the market evolves like LTE, there could be 6 months of 5G price advantage before it’s killed by price competition (as has already happened with EE in UK). The best that some CSPs can expect is some small blip increase in market share from the introduction of 5G. Instead, CSPs regard 5G mobile broadband as a platform from which to up-sell other new value-add digital services to consumers. This is a key driver of the current 5G market momentum, including the operators with whom Nokia has signed 48 commercial deals. 5G enterprise market Given the limited opportunity in consumer, Nokia expects one big opportunity for CSPs to be in the area of industrial automation; with 5G […]