5G might well be essential for many manufacturing applications and use cases. That is quite a different matter from a situation where 5G connectivity providers “own” industry 4.0, 5G-aided manufacturing or the industrial internet of things.
source: The Manufacturing Institute
It is one thing to argue that mobile service providers will play a part in 5G, edge computing, private network and internet of things ecosystems.
But when, at any time in the last 50 years, have you seen connectivity providers actually wind up leading any new industries using connectivity networks?
It has not been for lack of trying. Consider only the innovations created the former AT&T Bell Laboratories:
Fax machine (1925)
Long-distance transmission of live television images (1927)
First binary digital computer (1939)
First practical photovoltaic cell (1954)
First transistor (1956)
Unix operating system (1969)
C programming language (1972)
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation (1978)
Digital cell phone (1980)
Forerunner of wi-fii (1995).
Consider the success of telco moves into data centers, computing, mobile app stores, voice over internet protocol, multimedia messaging, consumer devices, subscription television or content.
While there have been some successes, by and large telcos do not lead any of those businesses.
The point is that telcos have had 50 years to try and capture leadership in new emerging areas reliant on communications. By and large, they have not grabbed leadership in any applications or revenue streams not directly related to consumer and basic business communications.
That is not to say it is impossible, merely terribly hard.
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