Report recommends a national digital infrastructure strategy
VANCOUVER — 5G and 5G-enabled technologies could deliver an estimated 16%, or $120 billion, of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth by 2036, but Canada lags behind other leading countries in the rollout of 5G, according to a new report from Vancouver-based management consulting company Deetken Insight.
“Despite its market-leading performance in 4G and the transformational benefits of 5G, Canada is lagging its peers in the deployment of 5G. Compared to the U.S., Germany, Japan, Italy, Australia, and South Korea, Canada’s 5G spectrum allocations for mid- and high-band frequencies are one to five years behind,” reads an executive summary of the report, which was commissioned by Telus.
5G and the innovation it enables “will create economic growth through increases in productivity, the efficiency with which inputs are used to create output,” the report says.
“Based on published estimates and independent modelling by Deetken, 5G will enable real GDP growth in Canada of $30 billion to $50 billion by 2030 and $100 billion to $120 billion by 2036. The midpoints of these ranges represent roughly 14% of economic growth by 2030 and 16% of growth by 2036.”
The report, which looks at the potential socio-economic benefits of 5G in Canada, also asserts 5G and related technologies will help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 20% and increase agriculture GDP by $2.7 billion to $3.5 billion in 2030, while reducing that industry’s emissions by at least 10%.
5G will also help reduce the digital divide impacting rural and other underserved communities, the report says. “5G-enabled fixed wireless access (FWA) will allow network operators to deliver wireless ultra-high-speed broadband internet to homes and businesses in rural, remote, and Indigenous regions where last-mile fibre is unfeasible,” the report explains. “5G FWA eliminates the need for costly deployment of deep-fiber fixed access infrastructure while also offering peak rates that few fixed technologies can match.”
The report suggests steps that government, mobile network operators and other industry stakeholders should take to accelerate the successful deployment and adoption of 5G.
“To ensure that Canadians realize the full benefits of 5G, Canada urgently needs a national digital infrastructure strategy,” the report says. “The federal government in collaboration with key 5G ecosystem stakeholders and other levels of government, should develop a comprehensive and integrated three-year digital roadmap to enable the 5G network.”
Tony Geheran, Telus chief operations officer at Telus, said, “If Canada wants to solidify itself as a global competitor in the race for 5G, we must have all stakeholders on board, including the government. Without a clear roadmap in place, we risk falling behind on the rollout of critical infrastructure to support the functioning of these key applications. We believe that a successful rollout of 5G infrastructure could be the backbone of the Canadian economy for the next decade to come.”
According to the report, this roadmap should address seven key outcomes for 5G deployment and adoption, including the following:
- Timely access to 5G relevant spectrum across all bands
- Reinforcement of resilient network infrastructure with appropriate coverage, bandwidth, latency and reliability, supported by government investments
- Availability of connected devices, software and applications to take full advantage of the capabilities of 5G
- Regulatory flexibility to support network operators’ development of tiered services with differentiated pricing and service levels targeted to different market segments and key sectors through partnership models among 5G ecosystem participants
- Creation of unified national standards for spectrum, network hardware, endpoint devices, security, privacy, software and applications
- Intensification of current network security and data privacy policies to address new vulnerabilities introduced with 5G
- Definition and implementation of a performance management framework, including operational and sector-specific metrics, to track the performance and socio-economic contributions of 5G with the leadership of federal agencies including the CRTC and Statistics Canada who can design, coordinate and monitor progress
5G image courtesy of Deetken Insight’s website
