Factories, autonomous vehicles, health care and education are all parts of society that are becoming dependent on broadband internet. While the coronavirus pandemic accelerated this process, the cost of the delay of 5G is reflected in per capita income.

When businesses reach the fifth-generation gigabyte processing speed and latency of fewer than 10 milliseconds, the pulse of artificial intelligence (AI), internet-connected devices, internet of things (IoT), robotics and augmented reality technology will be determined by internet speed, namely 5G and fiber investments.

According to the market research company eMarketer, the time has come to prepare for the holistic evolution of society and business that coincides with the development of smart cities. The pandemic has shown that the future will certainly see high growth for billions of connected devices, wireless factories and autonomous cars.

5G to add $8 trillion to GDP

New research from the Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia has found that 5G-enabled industries have the potential to add $8 trillion to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, as COVID-19 accelerates medium and long-term digital investment and value creation.

The report, titled "5G Business Readiness Report," highlights that companies at an advanced level of 5G adoption are the only group to experience a net increase in productivity – over 10% – following COVID-19 and the only group able to maintain or increase customer engagement during the pandemic.

The findings showed that 5G mature companies are also growing considerably faster than their peers.

Despite the economic challenges of COVID-19, a global boom in 5G investment will see 72% of large companies invest in the technology over the next five years.

While there are significant differences between different geographies in terms of the level of adoption of 5G, Saudi Arabia and the United States lead the way in terms of adoption rate, according to the report.

Direct impact on work

The study examines the rate of 5G adoption by businesses around the world and reveals an intersectoral flow on the road to full implementation of the technology.

This directional report from Nokia highlights the potential of 5G to support sustainable economic growth and determine the next decade of innovation.

It is predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic will further increase the value creation potential of 5G in the medium and long term by accelerating digitalization, especially among the least digitally developed.

The report also reveals a clear correlation between the implementation of 5G and operational performance. While companies that adopted advanced 5G were the only group to achieve a net increase in productivity after COVID-19, they were the only group that managed to maintain or increase customer loyalty during the pandemic. https://www.nokia.com/networks/5g/readiness-report/

Why are we so 5G-dependent?

According to a study by Deloitte, 5G will facilitate many new technologies such as self-driving cars, mobile payments and remote monitoring and control.

Even manufacturing-driven emerging markets are predicted to be quickly affected by the 5G conversion. It is thought that the pandemic will accelerate the transformation. It is inevitable for countries that do not want to be surprised about production to make 5G investments.

Emerging markets have always lagged behind developed countries in adopting the latest generation mobile networks, with a few exceptions.

Yet, global technology market consulting firm ABI Research reveals that 5G will be adopted faster than expected in emerging markets.

Despite having a roughly 65% rural population, it estimates that India’s 1.2 billion subscribers will increase their mobile data traffic to 160.4 exabytes by 2025. This figure exceeds the mobile data traffic of all developed countries such as South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Developing countries that rely heavily on agriculture or manufacturing production are also expected to continue to benefit from the digital transformation capabilities of 5G.

Speed record in open source access platform

Turkey's leading information and communication technologies company Türk Telekom has significant advantages in terms of compliance with 5G infrastructure in terms of fiber infrastructure and its subsidiaries such as Argela.

Breaking new ground in Turkey, Türk Telekom tested the new generation XGS-PON technology, which provides symmetrical download and upload speeds of 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), on an "open-source" access platform that will accelerate domestic production. Thanks to this new innovation, a 10 GB movie can be downloaded in about eight seconds, and a 75 GB file can be downloaded in as little as a minute.

With XGS-PON technology, which was tested on an open-source platform established at the Türk Telekom Innovation Center in Ankara, and as a result of the studies carried out with the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), an international organization in which only Türk Telekom takes part in its management, speeds of up to 10 Gbps were reached.

With high-speed internet, a 16K quality TV viewing experience can be provided from all devices.

With XGS-PON, a new generation passive optical network (PON) technology, gigabit-level speeds are provided for downloading and uploading data from a fiber hair, while end-users will be able to benefit more quickly and comprehensively from applications such as 16K and 360-degree video, smart home applications, online gaming, augmented and virtual reality, e-education and e-health.

Entrepreneurs to get support up to TL 200,000

An entrepreneurship program by the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBITAK) has started to receive pre-applications for this year.

The program is carried out in cooperation with Istanbul Teknokent, Boğaziçi University Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and Sakarya Teknokent.

"We invite people with innovative business ideas to apply to the TÜBITAK Individual Youth Enterprise (BIGG) program," said Hasan Kömürcü of the Entrepreneurship and Incorporation Management Responsible for Istanbul Teknokent.

"In this context, we provide services such as business guidance, business model creation, project writing, mentoring, pre-incubation and incubation to entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur candidates who develop their business ideas using these services apply to TÜBITAK with their pre-approved business plans. Thus, selected entrepreneurs can benefit from grant support up to TL 200,000 ($25,110)," Kömürcü noted.

The first stage application of the program can be made at bigg.entertech.com.tr.

Business ideas collected on the web are subjected to a two-stage screening system. Istanbul Teknokent, Boğaziçi TTO and Sakarya Teknokent will evaluate the business ideas considering their technological level and innovative aspect, applicability, commercial value, competitive level and the qualification of the team and their suitability with the business idea.