The 5G Business Readiness Report, carried out by Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs, surveyed 5G adoption among businesses around the world and found that, despite the economic challenges of Covid-19, a global boom in 5G investment will see 71% of companies invest in 5G over the next five years.
What’s more, 5G mature companies are growing fast and are the only group to have experienced a net increase in productivity (+10%) following Covid-19. This, Nokia said, shows a clear correlation between 5G deployment and business performance. There are significant geographic variations among the more advanced 5G nations, with Saudi Arabia and the United States leading adoption.
Gabriela Styf Sjöman, chief strategy officer at Nokia, said, “To capture the tremendous opportunities of 5G, organisations must start or intensify their planning now and accelerate business model innovation to remain competitive in a rapidly digitalising global economy. Beyond investment in the technology itself, this will require digitalising operations, processes and ways of working to capture the full potential of 5G.”
The gap between 5G awareness and current levels of adoption suggests there are notable barriers to implementation. The research identified five principal barriers to 5G adoption. These were: ecosystem availability, education and understanding, awareness, cost and complexity, and security.
The full report can be read here.