The following report was prepared and published by our sister platform SPEEDA—August 2023.

The rollout of commercial 5G, the fifth-generation technology standard for mobile networks, has already begun in full, although the actual progress differs depending on the country. In the past, the 3G-to-4G transition brought about a significant increase in connection speeds, which pushed further the popularity of smartphones, giving rise to many new services and significantly changing people’s daily lives. The transition of smartphones to 5G is similarly expected to drive market growth, taking advantage of the higher bandwidth and speeds. In addition, 5G is also expected to influence the businesses arena, where its unique features such as ultra-reliability, low latency, and capacity for a high number of simultaneous connections are attracting attention in the context of B2B2X services using telecommunications infrastructure (Business to Business to X: a business model where service providers work with business partners who, in turn, deliver services to the end users). Proper usage of 5G in this area would require the expansion of “full 5G” (see below for details). However, as it takes time to expand its coverage, in the meantime, “local 5G” is gaining traction as a way of expediting adoption of the new standard with government backing.

This report will look at new B2B2X services that make use of 5G, including possible applications of the technology and the exact features that have the potential to be useful in them.