Powering the 5G future of Singapore: an award-winning partnership
President and Country Manager of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei, Philippines and Pacific Island
President and Country Manager of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei, Philippines and Pacific Island
President and Country Manager of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei, Philippines and Pacific Island
The longstanding partnership between Singtel and Ericsson – more than 30 years in duration – is helping Singapore realize the limitless possibilities of 5G connectivity for both consumers and enterprises. In May 21, 2021 Singtel launched one of first global 5G standalone (SA) networks with Ericsson. With a vision to “Power Up Singapore with 5G” and enabling Singapore's Smart Nation journey, Singtel and Ericsson embarked on the ambitious plan to:
- Deploy a future-proof 5G network
- Drive adoption of the 5G enterprise with an ecosystem of partners to develop innovative solutions for both consumers and enterprises.
- Deploying 5G SA, which will provide an optimal environment for consumer and enterprise applications as well as innovation.
Together we are imagining the limitless possibilities of connectivity and unleashing the full potential of 5G for both consumers and enterprises in Singapore.
One of the highlights of this collaboration was jointly winning the 5G Deployment award at the Asia Communications Award. In addition, we had a recent milestone of achieving 5.4 Gbps download speeds using New Radio-Dual Connectivity by aggregating mid-band spectrum at 3.5GHz and high-band spectrum at 28 GHz.
There’s been a lot of interest in how Singtel and Ericsson are achieving these milestones together, Jan Karlsson Head of Ericsson Digital Services recently had a discussion with Mark Chong, Group CTO of Singtel to better understand what drives Singtel, their areas of focus for the coming years and what advice they have for other Telecommunication providers who are entering into the 5G enterprise market. This interview is the second in the series of ‘5G – the catalyst for enterprise transformation’:
The latest Ericsson IndustryLab report predicts widespread manufacturing transformation by 2030: with three out of four manufacturers globally saying they believe advanced wireless technology like 5G is very important for their production tools. Globally, Ericsson has now powered up more than 100 live 5G networks worldwide, and we’ve collaborated with global industry 4.0 partners since 2015. Today, Ericsson is working closely with CSPs - like Singtel - as well as different organizations to make the necessary changes to help them prepare for and implement 5G for their businesses.
The 5G future of Singapore
In October 2021, we signed a 5G enterprise ecosystem memorandum of understanding (MOU), together with Singtel and nine leading global industry partners in Singapore to drive more 5G conversations and adoption in the surrounding region. As the fifth generation of cellular mobile technology, 5G is a gamechanger. In fact, our 5G for business: a 2030 market compass Ericsson report reveals the total digitalization revenues for ICT players from 10 key industries in Singapore is forecasted to reach US$17.41 billion by 2030, with 5G-enabled revenue for CSPs estimated at US$6.48 billion. It will drive the future-readiness of CSP networks, provide a platform for innovation and create new business opportunities.
Singapore’s clear plans for the deployment of 5G standalone opens the way for the application of new advanced technologies like network slicing, as well as use cases like immersive technologies, AR/VR/XR as well as vehicles or robot control. As one of the most competitive nations globally, the overall tech-savvy environment is also very conducive for the adoption and expansion of 5G for enterprises.
5G Standalone deployment
Meanwhile, Head of Packet Core Solutions, Monica Zethzon who was part of the team who helped deploy 5G Standalone in Singapore, spoke with Tay Yeow Lian, MD Networks at Singtel, to discuss his learnings on the opportunities and challenges they faced:
My team and I have been deeply engaged with Singtel on this journey, and I am excited to sum up a few personal highlights from what Monica and Yeow Lian discussed in the video, such as:
- The upcoming 5G potential for network slicing, ultra-low latency, and mobile edge computing.
- How enterprise customers in Singapore are very excited about the 5G uplink capability with applications ranging from police cameras, to manufacturing 4.0, as well as port operations for example.
- How Singtel, with support from Ericsson, has been gearing up to support 5G by training their engineering teams and by working with the education and academic sectors.
- How the drivers behind the collaboration between Singtel and Ericsson were described as the Three P’s in terms of People, Process and Platform. No doubt, these three components need to be in place to succeed in complex transformation projects and we have one more time proven that Singtel and Ericsson form a very strong partnership.
Read Singtel's PR on the launch
Read more about 5G Core
