A new Deloitte Access Economics report reveals a lack of business readiness for 5G adoption
Economic advisory company Deloitte Access Economics has warned in its new report 5G Unleashed: Realising the potential of the next generation of mobile technology that the potential boost to Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in coming years may be affected by a lack of readiness for 5G technology by businesses.
The report found that, while Australia is currently ranked third globally in terms of mobile connectivity, it is at risk of falling to ninth by 2025 due to a lack of business readiness for change and a policy regime that needs to be updated.
Deloitte says that Australian businesses were found to be slow when it comes to readiness for adoption of 5G, despite 62 per cent of businesses leaders across four sectors agreeing 5G will accelerate the growth of their business. Of those surveyed, 59 per cent say that they have no strategy to realise 5G and nearly 30 per cent have no plans to implement 5G.
The report’s economic modelling estimates 5G will increase Australia’s GDP by $67 billion by 2030 based on the current trajectory for adoption. However, an additional $27 billion can be realised, it says, through adoption of 5G technology.
“With nearly 90 per cent of businesses facing barriers to 5G adoption, Australia can only unlock the significant economic dividend by lifting business readiness and re-energising the policy regime and framework for 5G,” Deloitte Access Economics partner and technology, media and communications lead John O’Mahony.
“The report also sets out 11 policy priorities for government across three key areas – driving national adoption of 5G, infrastructure deployment and spectrum allocation – to support accelerated 5G adoption and rollout, and facilitate enhanced investment in 5G.”
CEO of Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) Louise Hyland adds that Australia’s mobile telecommunications sector has invested billions in the 5G rollout over a number of years.
“We know there are significant economic benefits to be gained from the adoption of 5G across industry, including innovation, jobs, productivity, and global collaboration & competitiveness,” she says.
“Australia’s world-leading 5G rollout has seen three live networks established and operational 5G base stations at almost 4,000 sites at the end of 2021 with significantly more brought online since, while trials of 5G technology are being undertaken by industry and supported by the Australian government’s 5G Innovation Initiative.”
“But in reality, that opportunity only has value if the potential can be realised, and that’s why we are calling on industry and government to now play their role in driving an enhanced rate of 5G adoption.”
The report found that barriers to businesses adopting advanced mobile use cases include it not being a current priority (28 per cent) and believing costs are too high (27 per cent).
Many 5G use cases of interest to business leaders are industry-specific, such as greenhouse automation in agriculture, remote monitoring of stock levels in manufacturing, data analytics for patient outcomes in health care and traffic monitoring for smart cities.