Latest technology from Ericsson improving Thailand
Ericsson (Thailand) is well positioned to help Thailand further transform for the benefit of its people, business and society, the company’s president and country manager, Nadine Allen, has said.
“Our strategy is about enabling our customers to be successful. Telecom operators today are looking to create value through relentless efficiency, including keeping costs down and getting the most out of their assets; leveraging digital to create unique customer experiences and gaining new revenue streams,” she added.
“At Ericsson, we are focused on making our customers successful, so that we are successful. We bring our technology and innovation, strong partnerships and ecosystem, and combine this with our local expertise to support our customers,” she said.
A global information and communications technology company, Ericsson has been present in Thailand for 111 years.
One example of Ericsson’s achievements in 2017 to help bring the country towards the Digital Thailand vision is the company’s conduct of the first live 5G end-to-end demonstration in Thailand.
Allen said that as 5G offers greater throughput and lower latency than other technologies, it will enhance the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT will allow new applications for Thai consumers such as augmented reality (AR), virtual realฌity (VR), autonomous/artificial intelligencecontrolled cars, and industry applications such as smart vehicles and transport infrastructure, remote healthcare and robotics.
IoT refers to everyday physical objects connected to the Internet, giving them the ability to identify and interact with other devices.
The 5G technology will also offer new revenue streams for telecom operators, Allen added.
“In fact, we estimate that by 2026, Thai operators can increase their revenues by 22 per cent through 5G enabled digitalisation,” she said.
In 2017 Ericsson Thailand demonstrated the use of Voice over LongTerm Evolution (VoLTE) wireless broadband communication technology for IoT devices in CatM1 – a radio technology that offers benefits such as high mobility, low cost, wide coverage, flexible deployment and low latency.
Ericsson Thailand in 2017 also demonstrated some uses of narrow band IoT technology for True Corp.
She said that these are important milestones to prepare the networks to fulfil market requirements once the ecosystems and commercial applications of cellular IoT are in place.
The Swedish company has also worked hard to improve the network experience for mobile phone service subscribers by focusing on improving inbuilding solutions in important commercial, community and highusage areas for telecom operators.
“These are just some of the examples of our work to enable our customers to be successful, and we plan to continue this momentum in 2018,” Allen added.
She said that Ericsson, with its portfolio of 5G ready network products, is in a position to help telecom operators in Thailand seamlessly migrate from the 4G network to 5G, given Ericsson is in the forefront of the 5G innovation.
Ericsson is playing a leading role in formulating the 5G standards. It is working with key partners and are involved in early trials which are key to develop leading technologies for the standards as well as competitive product portfolios and innovation of the new use cases.
“Today, we have formal 5G partnerships with over 20 industry partners, 38 operator partners and 45 uniฌversities and research institutes globally. Ericsson is leading 5G in APAC with the first 5G showcases and trials in Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Japan, Korea and China,” Allen said.
She expected that the early allocation of 5G spectrum in Thailand and the development of 5G use cases could make the commercialisation of 5G from 2020 a reality.
“We are currently discussing with the government and our customers about the advent of 5G and what this could mean for Thailand,” Allen said.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is expected to auction off one licence of the 900megahertz spectrum and three licences of the 1800MHz spectrum in May 2018.
According to the 2017 November edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, smartphone subscriptions in Thailand are set to reach 100 million by 2023, contributing around 87 per cent of the total mobile service subscriptions. The number of mobile phone service subscriptions in Thailand are expected to reach around 115 million by the year 2023 from around 95 million subscriptions in 2017.
LTE4G/5G subscriptions are expected to account for over 60 per cent of total mobile subscriptions in Thailand in 2023.
Source: Nation
