Cognitio Consultants isn a global Telecommunications and IT

Consulting Company. We help Communication Service

Providers (CSP’s), Governments and Enterprises. We have a Commented [RR1]: I wouldn’t use abbreviations in
wide range of associates working on Security, USO, RIC REILLY collateral as you wrongly assume that readers know what
Regulatory, Business Planning and Technology assignments. abbreviations mean or they the same meaning as yours.

An interview with Ric Reilly: 5G

innovation in the UK
5G potentially offers enormous societal benefit through its transformational
capability as a platform for future connections between people and devices.
However currently the primary use that it is being put to is for greater speed of
connection. The exciting applications and innovation require stimulus. This is Ric has more than thirty
being provided through public private partnership (PPP) approaches in the UK. years in the business,
So where do we start? How do you see the industry and sector now? building mobile networks
for operators and
Right now, operators have had to slim their operations more and more, so that manufacturers as well as Commented [RR2]: Probably need an opening sentence
today they have a very narrow brief that does not easily allow them to go outside setting the scene of 5G and the imperative to accelerate and
subcontractors. He has a grasp the enormous benefits.
of that.innovate. Added to that, government legislation in the past few years has particular interest in
Commented [RR3]: If that’s what I said it’s not quite what I
made it increasingly difficult – acquisition is the problem. A lot of property is improving the dialogue andmeant!
coming up for renewal of leases and that can makes the property portfolio interactions between the
Commented [RR4]: Need to expand this sentence and lose
difficult to access and sustain. If you want to do an upgrade for 5G this really public and private sectors.the word government, as I need to watch for sensitivities
causes difficulties and there is a total difference inbetween operators and local Most recently Ric has beenwith my next employer!
governments that often own the property culture. Leases are looked after by working with West Commented [RR5]: Need to split this into tow observation
estates guys whereas upgrades are telecommunications implementation guys. Midlands 5G (WM5G) andand perhaps replace culture with different views.
OK, that’s at a very operational level, but you have been working to bridge the the UK government
gap so that we see real use cases for 5G. Tell me about that. Department for Culture
Media and Sports.
West Midlands 5G1 was established as part of the British Government’s Urban
Connected Communities Project, under the West Midlands Combined Authority. Ric is a chartered engineerCommented [RR6]: Might be worth naming cities that folk
This includes Britain’s second city, Birmingham. ISo, it’s a project and not a and lives in Cornwall UK in the East might recognise?
company. It iswas part of a £200m investment in test beds and trials. It has
£25ma substantialion government grantgRANT which is supposed to bebeing
matched augmented by local sources and by the private sector to foster
development of 5G and exists in various verticals as well as the UK’s first 5G
innovation hubs.:

1
West Midlands 5G: Accelerating the benefits of 5G (wm5g.org.uk)
 Transport Health Manufacturing Construction

The idea is to test, prove and scale new 5G ideas, and to fire up the imagination on the difference that
5G connectivity will bring to communities, companies and citizens..

The UK was 74th in the world to commercially launch 4G whereas its 5th to launch 5G. Once we have
proved the use case it is handed over to the appropriate public or commercial sector. WM5G does not
generally buy-in services, butservices but has a partnering model with substantial pieces of works
entrusted to consortiums selected using a rigorous tendering process..process. . A typical application will
bring together connectivity, the IOT, big data and artificial intelligence so consortiums will include
experts in networking, the relevant sector, computingcomputing, and business processes

. Working with WM5G we have created 3 times the coverage of any other local authority. Commented [RR7]: This sentence probably belong in the
section about bridging the gap.
How about coverage holes and the unserved? Commented [RR8]: This bit probable need to be in earlier
sections
We are building mapping applications to show which areas aren’t served or aren’t served well. Once we
have this information, we can correlate with public assets with network gaps in coverage and capacity
and bring the problem and opportunity together. Having 3D maps is hugely beneficial. So, the
innovation that we are looking at isn’t just solving urban issues but also addresses rural issues of
coverage, where the UK government is cofounding a Shared Rural Network with the operators to ensure
90% geographical 4G coverage by mid-2025

It’s handed off to a number of partners, consultants, operators and enablers.

We have a particular engagement process for our 5PRING application accelerator2 facility: Commented [RR9]: AS a footnot a URL to the 5PRING site?

Engage Explore Exploit

What’s different about 5G? Commented [RR10]: Might be worth a URL to white papers
on 5G benefits by certain sectors, all on the WM5G website.
Each new generation of mobile communications has been in two phases. For the first two years it does
what the last generation did, but better, more capably and often more cost effectively. For example, 5G
will be faster than 4G, spectral efficiency is higher and operational costs per unit are lower and it can
handle much more volume of data which surpasses the limits of 4G. Its in the second phase that things
become interesting when innovation starts to occur, as the additional a characteristicss of 5G come into
play.. If we aren’t careful, we could kill much of that innovation by 5G just being seen as a better Commented [RR11]: I would include the ETSI like triangle
streaming technology. At WM5G3 we realised that Uplink is essential too, as will be low latency, ultra showing URLLC, mMTC and eMBB
reliabilityultra-reliability and scalability..scalability. There are challenges for national and local

2
5PRING - the UK’s first 5G commercial application accelerator.
3
Projects | West Midlands 5G (wm5g.org.uk)
government with digital access and affordability for all, but 5G could enable a true technological
revolution enhancing everyone’s lives.

We provide a two-week consultancy engagement in the “accelerator” for enterprises wanting to explore 5G. Next
is the “Exploit” phase where it could just involve connectivity. In fact, many Small and Medium Enterprises
are not aware of the opportunities that connectivity can bring and haven’t the resources to harness them

Many of the applications are IoT which means that they are machine to machine (M2M). By 2025
there will be 7 times the number of IoT devices and there is already 6.5 billion today. That means that
we are also going to need the networks to handle tens of thousands of devices per square km in
our cities, which 5G does. In developed economies an individual could easily have 20 devices, many
without knowing it, integral with other products and funded by micro-subscriptions (e.g. many if not
most sat navs come with an RF transceiver and a vSIM as do door bells, cameras, etc). Of
course, many of these can use the fixed network and so its important that 5G isn’t oversold. But where
the application is mobile or transient then 5G is important. Operator 5G and fixed
technologies should be viewed and sold as complementary and not competing technologies, users buy
services and few care how it is delivered.

The implication for telecommunications operators is that they must be able to handle big data and
Artificial Intelligence, and should have a role throughout the value chain, or risk being just a utility with
falling returns providing a pipeline of data for others to exploit.

Is there a “killer app” for 5G yet?

Its still too early to really say but we already seeing results:

Transport: we are actually in the same building as the Transport for West Midlands. It helps.
We have put £2.5m in to a number of projects tackling parking, pollution, traffic management, traveller
safety and tourist assistance and a further round of tenders has just started.
We are using 5G, big data and analytics to determine where
there are potholes in the road and dynamic traffic management needs 5G due to the data volumes. We
are also using it for public transport on trains and buses.
That’s great and I’m sure there are many interested governments, especially in South East Asia where
we operate. I imagine the efficiencies could be huge. What are the lessons so far?

For these use cases the 4G network is insufficient, especially in the uplink and scalability. The high pixel
density requires 5G. In fact, we have seen quite a shift. When I first went to the conferences and
workshops, we had the networks guys but now its all about big data and AI. One problem is that the
companies can capture all the innovation but, in the process, these start-ups lose their innovative heart
and drive. Its one reason that government intervention helps.

Health: COVID-19 has raised the health agenda up hugely this year. In the UK too many people go to
hospital. If an ambulance could do ultrasound a better video link solves this. Again, it’s the uplink
capability of 5G that can help. Soon haptic feedback will become important. For some applications in
both health and industry 4G is a good start, but as soon as it involves
maintenance and interaction you need low latency and ultra-reliability. Important things
on health are taking the service to the point of need as with ultrasound, but also diagnoses in care
home, elderly and the infirm at home, and now capsule endoscopy.

Tell me about the governmental aspects

In the past telecommunications operators have tended to avoid public assets, and the public and private
sector have had difficult relations, not always appreciating the benefits of common goals and
collaboration. So, in fact the connections between the private sector and the government in this respect
hasn’t really been developed in the past. Now we are trying to engage at the local level so that local
government can start to see the value and welcome the operators and the technologies. This takes
regulatory change which needs to be
accompanied by a new era of engagement, empathy and collaboration. You need a top
down approach:

Mandate from Government

Digital Strategy

Digital Champion

Implementor & Ambassador

There needs to be a broader understanding at the local government level that the telecommunications
operator is not just there to pay for a lease but that there is broader social economic value. Only by
working together for the greater good will we secure the benefits of fixed and mobile technology for the
prosperity of the country, its communities and all its citizens.

Thank you, Ric that has been, a most informative discussion.