M+E Connections

Infosys established 5G Living Labs in five locations around the world that it said will allow the company to provide new offerings helping enterprises “imagine and create new economies” with 5G technology, while “helping communication service providers accelerate and monetize their 5G network deployment.”

The 5G Living Labs are located in Bengaluru, India; Richardson, Texas; Indianapolis; Frankfurt; and Melbourne, Infosys announced Feb. 25 from Barcelona as Mobile World Congress (MWC) kicked off there.

“5G will transform network capabilities bringing in significant opportunities for network virtualization,” artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, “while lowering associated costs considerably, and enhancing delivery of network-based services,” Infosys said in a news release.

The next-generation mobile technology will also “enable enterprises — IT and other business departments — to usher in a new era of innovation, create new experiences and improve operational efficiency in organizations,” it said.

Infosys has worked on enterprise applications and systems for nearly four decades, giving it an understanding of the “opportunities and challenges enterprises face on their digital transformation journey,” it said. One major challenge is the need for enterprises to “keep pace with innovation in their ecosystem and the ability to quickly prototype ideas,” it noted.

The global network of 5G Living Labs were “designed to help enterprises imagine and curate game changing ideas driven by 5G, and rapidly prototype them to life,” it said.

The labs combine the best of the company’s emerging technologies expertise in areas including AI, augmented reality (AR), the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual reality (VR), as well as a “diverse partner ecosystem that is deeply invested in 5G technologies,” it said. Enterprise adoption of 5G is “key to monetizing networks for communication services providers and Infosys Living Labs enables that by providing an ecosystem to incubate offerings and deploy at scale,” it said.

5G is creating an “array of opportunities” for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and enterprises in the digital era, according to Ravi Kumar S, Infosys president and deputy COO. The company’s suite of 5G offerings are “powered by our extensive experience of working with major telecom service providers and enterprises globally in transforming their business and technology landscape,” he said in the announcement, adding: “Our expertise in areas” including over-the-top (OTT) platforms and IoT, “together with industry collaborations among network solution providers, network OEMS and CSPs will help customers maximize their 5G potential to navigate their next.”

Separately, MWC producer GSMA released a report in which it said 5G was on track to represent 15% of global mobile connections by 2025, as the number of 5G network launches and compatible devices ramp up this year.

The 2019 global edition of its Mobile Economy report series also revealed that an additional 16 major markets globally will switch on commercial 5G networks in 2019, following the first 5G launches in South Korea and the U.S. in 2018. GSMA estimated that mobile operators worldwide are investing about $160 billion a year to expand and upgrade their networks, despite regulatory and competitive pressures.