Further, 77% of companies that already use connected equipment found 5G-enabled remote control machinery appealing, while 82% of respondents who already use cloud robotics said the concept of 5G-enabled cloud robotics was highly appealing.
The findings are published in new research from Nokia on the biggest drivers for 5G in 2020 and, despite initial concerns to the contrary, it is predicted the Covid-19 pandemic could accelerate take-up of 5G technologies.
“We anticipate requirements born out of the Covid-19 pandemic will accelerate longer-term 5G plans with a focus on digitilisation, automation and analytics, which perfectly lend themselves to physical distancing, monitoring and remote working,” said Josh Aroner, vice president marketing for Nokia’s service provider business.
Nokia questioned 1,000 IT decision-makers in the US and UK across seven vertical sectors: energy, retail, manufacturing, government and public sector, automotive and transportation, media and advertising, and education.
In bringing the vision to life, 61% of enterprises still look to mobile operators for direction when planning 5G services – despite the increasing ability to build their own private wireless networks.
However, with more than one-third citing a system integrator as their preferred partner, cloud service providers are likely to run into some strong competition.
Nokia also found 65% of IT decision-makers are aware of 5G, one-third are using it today and 47% have started planning deployments. Meanwhile, separate consumer research found 80% “understand and want” 5G.
In May, Nokia achieved 5G speeds of up to 4.7 Gbps in tests performed on base station equipment being deployed in major US carriers' commercial networks, utilizing 800 MHz of commercial millimetre wave 5G spectrum and Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) functionality.
