BARCELONA, Spain, July 2, 2021 — The GTI Online Summit 2021, with the theme of "5G Reshape Industries", was held on 30th June during MWC Barcelona 2021. High-level speakers from international organizations, operators and vertical industry partners shared their insights into the current status, cooperative practices and challenges of global 5G toB commercialization, and accelerated 5G integration with all walks of life to create new business opportunities and new digital value.
Mr. Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of GTI, delivered the welcome note. He said, "We are seeing rising awareness about the significance of digital transformation and a key role that 5G will play in accelerating this process to support economic recovery and sustainable development on a global scale. GTI has been cooperating with over 300 partners and made notable achievements in defining requirements, lowering application barriers as well as expanding the application scale."
Mr. Zhao Houlin, Secretary General of ITU, stated, "I highlighted my 4Is strategy: Infrastructure, Investments, Innovations, and Inclusiveness. I call on all of you to increase investment in ICT infrastructure, and ICT innovations, to bring ICT to all people in our planet, leave no one behind."
Mr. Gao Tongqing, Executive Vice President of China Mobile, remarked, "This June marks the second anniversary of China’s 5G commercial license issuance. The rapid development of 5G industry is attributable to the joint promotion and efforts of global industry partners. While industry innovations brought by any new technology will not be accomplished at one stroke, the journey of integrating 5G into all industries is not always so smooth either."
Mr. Alex Sinclair, CTO of GSMA, pointed out, "The dawn of the 5G era has also seen a marked change in the way that we collaborate and whom we collaborate with. Suffice it to say 5G networks are here, the interest of demand from the verticals is clearly here as well."
Dr. Soo-Jung Shin, SEVP & Head of Enterprise Group of KT, commented in his keynote speech, "There are difficulties that need to be overcome for full scale activation of 5G B2B, such as clear customer value is not provided, the slow development of devices and application services, many companies perceive 5G as a simple network rather than a platform."
Mr. Liu Jian, General Manager of Enterprise Division of China Mobile, emphasized that the application of 5G in industries has accelerated the in-depth integration of OT, IT, and CT. It not only reshaped the industry structure, but also provided new opportunities for operators’ transformation and upgrading.
Mrs. Chen Lan, President & CEO of DOCOMO Beijing Labs, noted, "We are further exploring possibilities in 5G to realize the digitalization of industries, new customer-relation and work-style reform, and investigating 6G and IOWN technologies for the further realization of a wellbeing society."
Dr. Andreas Mueller, General Chair of 5G-ACIA, commented that the biggest benefit maybe that 5G may bring is that it has the potential to become a one size fits all solution, at least for wireless connectivity in a factory. 5G is the only solution we currently see that is capable enough to support really a wide variety of different use cases, sometimes very diverse requirements at the same time.
Mr. Maxime Flament, CTO of 5GAA, noted in his keynote speech, "To make advanced safety and automated driving a reality, we need to go one step further, and the next step is 5G. 5G-V2X will make the road safer and greener for all."
Other industry players and vertical partners also spoke out at the summit about the industry progress and provided many cooperation practices and use cases.
Mr. Liu Yingshang, Deputy Chief Engineer of China Southern Power Grid, emphasized that cutting-edge 5G technology will provide strong support to a new electric power system mainly driven by new energy so as to reach peak emissions and achieve carbon neutrality.
Mr. Dai Qinghua, SVP of SANY Group, pointed out, "5G technologies, cloud computing and industrial technologies are indispensable for the development of the digital economy."
Mr. Jonas Larsson, VP and Head of Business Area Connected Products of AFRY, mentioned that the most interesting aspects of the true smart factory set up is not how digitalized and how Smart it is in absolute terms day one, but to what level it is enabling learning and development in the future iterations. Then true 5G connectivity is an important platform and enabler.
To watch video playback of this summit, please visit https://www.c114.com.cn/live/t91.html.
About GTI
GTI is an international platform of industry cooperation. It was kicked off in 2011 by China Mobile, SoftBank, Vodafone and a few of other operators. After ten years of joint efforts, GTI has developed 140 operators and 248 venders. In 2016, GTI 2.0 was officially launched in 2016, aiming to further promote 4G evolution, promote 5G development and cross-industry innovation.
To learn more about GTI, please visit www.gtigroup.org.