Connected Britain Interview
We caught up with Duncan Hawkins, VP Sales – Europe, Middle East & Africa at Ericsson, at this year’s Connected Britain conference to discuss the state of 5G and its future in the UK’s enterprise segment
While UK’s 5G rollout continues to advance at a steady pace, monetisation for operators remains a problem, with consumers proving largely nonplussed by the new technology. In the enterprise segment, however, the transformative potential of 5G is far more visible, with exciting use cases being announced regularly around the world.
As such, at Connected Britain 2023, the topic of 5G private networks was a major talking point.
“[Regarding 5G] for enterprise, I put us up there with the leading markets in the world,” said Ericsson’s VP Sales – Europe, Middle East & Africa, Duncan Hawkins. “It’s been driven largely by the spectrum available. Ofcom’s been quite forward thinking in allowing enterprises both to have public spectrum and shared spectrum, so that means organisations can actively adopt and experiment with these technologies.”
“I was asked on the panel earlier to give some examples of private 5G and my mind was just exploding with use cases!” he added.
He noted that good support from the government was playing a significant role in helping make these projects a success, noting that discussions were now maturing as enterprises’ understanding of connectivity gradually improves.
“We need to go back to basics. What sustainability goals can this help us hit? What productivity goals will this help us hit? Once we’ve got those, we can start to overcome these challenges,” explained Hawkins.
You can watch the full Connected Britain interview from the link below.