- Get link
- Other Apps
- Get link
- Other Apps
Huawei Indonesia CTO Alex Xing
Indonesia
is gearing up to host the prestigious annual Group of 20 (G20) summit that
culminates on October 30, 2022. With “Recover
Together, Recover Stronger” as the summit’s unifying message, President Joko
Widodo intends to focus on digital transformation of the economy, renewable
energy, inclusive healthcare on a global scale, and recovering from the effects
of the pandemic. And 5G technology is the key for these developments.
As circumstances
forced people to remain indoors, contactless, and remote working became the new
normal. Over a very short span of time, digital transformation across
industries accelerated through the deployment of digital technologies impacting
people’s daily lives, industrial productivity, and government outreach while
ensuring a swift return to economic growth. Digital innovation is essential to boost
social and economic recovery now and growth in the future.
5G
technologies are the key pillar infrastructure of industry digitalization and
helped realize many use cases that have helped us through the pandemic. The
benefits of 5G have been enjoyed by a diverse range of industries, from the
obvious practical applications to the incredible success stories in healthcare,
education, logistics, manufacturing, and the list of areas in which 5G has had
a positive impact keeps on growing.
5G
is a key infrastructure for the Development of Indonesia Digital Economy
President
Joko Widodo has affirmed multiple times that Indonesia’s digital economy
indeed has huge potential, with growth reaching US$40 billion, $47 billion and
$70 billion, respectively from 2019 to 2021. “We expect to reach $146 billion
by 2025. So, [the potential of Indonesia’s digital economy] is enormous,” the
President was quoted in a year-end statement.
Coupled
with Indonesia’s digital economy roadmap, known as Industry 4.0, the industrial
sector is being pushed and encouraged to embrace digitalization that is being
empowered by technologies such as 5G and
cloud.
5G delivers increased bandwidth, higher
reliability, and lower latency.
While 4G networks demonstrated a variety of use cases in its ability to connect
people, enterprises and industry, 5G will bring greater scalability, enhanced
security and greater efficiency on the new and existing connectivity layers. The
adoption of 5G will power up businesses to fully harness the capabilities of
advanced data-driven technologies
such as IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning.
The
GDP of Indonesia is over US$1 trillion, making it the largest economy in the
region. The economy is on track to continue its rapid growth, especially now
that digital transformation is being prioritized in national policy. Manufacturing, agriculture, trade,
construction, and mining are the largest contributors, making up 64.85 percent
of Indonesia's GDP in the second quarter of 2021, and all are showing steady
growth.
Manufacturing,
the central pillar of Indonesia’s economy, also needs to harness the power of
technologies, including 5G and Cloud, in order to streamline itself and make
the transition to Industry 4.0, ensuring Indonesia’s place as one of the
world’s top digital economies. The
manufacturing sector can utilize 5G-supported technologies & solutions,
such as smart manufacturing control, and machine vision, to lower operational
costs, promote production efficiency, and enhance safety. Combination
across multiple next-gen technology applications has also led to some
breakthroughs and innovations to future-ready and sustainable industries and
businesses.
As a
country blessed with a wealth of natural resources – including an ample supply
of coal, placing Indonesia in the fourth rank worldwide, as well as crude oil
and natural gas, placing Indonesia in the second and third ranks in Asia
Pacific, respectively – mining is another industry for which 5G is proving to
be a game-changer. 5G-enabled remote mining, for example, may reduce the need
to have workers doing dangerous work in shafts and quarries, resulting in a
safer working environment for many in the mining industry.
Last
but not least, healthcare has unquestionably been one of the most disrupted
industries during the pandemic. Healthcare providers, in particular, have
responded to the pandemic by innovating at an unprecedented rate. At present,
Indonesia's healthcare resources are distributed unevenly across the country.
5G technology makes it possible to democratize healthcare with telemedicine and
even exciting, revolutionary use cases such as remote surgery. A patient living
in a remote area can now receive the same treatment as a patient living in a
big city.
These
are just some examples of industry-specific use cases where 5G is rapidly
revolutionizing “business as usual.” PwC estimates
that 5G could drive US$13.2 trillion worth of growth in the global economy by
2035, plus creating 22.3 million jobs. And, in Indonesia, it is projected
that 5G-driven businesses and services could contribute around IDR2,800 billion
to the economy by 2030, or equivalent to 9.5 percent of national GDP. In the
process, this tremendous growth will make Indonesia ASEAN’s digital center and
hub.
5G and cloud rapid development may
become the springboard for economic recovery
5G
infrastructure development has increasingly been prioritized in the core
national strategies and roadmaps of South Korea, China, and many European
nations. In countries including Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia, large-scale
development projects have been fast tracked through budget allocations. The G20
summit is a good opportunity for world leaders to gather and discuss further on
how 5G technology can be implemented to combat existing challenges and even ensure
readiness for black swan events like the pandemic.
Neighboring
countries in ASEAN are also actively exploring how 5G can enable the transformation
of industries. In Thailand, for example, a national 5G committee has been
established with the aim of facilitating 5G deployment through policies and
incentive plans. The government has also followed up with even more concrete
initiatives, such as a 5G ecosystem innovation center, and a 5G-based smart
hospital.
In
Indonesia, the pandemic did not prevent telecom industry stakeholders from
creating breakthroughs that enable people and society to benefit from the
transformative potential of ICT.
Since early last year, Telkomsel, XL
Axiata, and Indosat Ooredoo (later known as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison following
the merger between Indosat and Tri) are the three operators that have rolled
out 5G for commercial use. Furthermore, Telkomsel is exploring the application of
5G in the mining and agriculture sectors, while XL Axiata has partnered with
research institutions to establish a 5G-powered IoT platform in order to meet
the needs of the businesses, especially in agriculture and manufacturing.
In the
big picture, exploration of the possibilities of 5G for businesses has yielded
tangible results across the globe. Several major industries have marched toward
breakthroughs in terms of scale deployment. In 2020, 20+ industries, including
mining, port management, steel making, and manufacturing, have seen the signing
of more than 1,000 contracts for
major 5G-based digital transformations, worth a total of US$1.2 billion.
Industry-specific application of 5G combined with at-scale deployment can
improve production efficiency, with key areas such as remote control, machine
vision, and positioning proving especially fruitful.
The digital world of today has brought
more intelligence to every industry. The high-speed connectivity of 5G
represents one of key technologies making that possible, and the cloud
represents the elastic and near-unlimited compute and storage capability
sitting at the other end of those connections. The cloud provides intelligent
solutions that can be provided as a service, readily available and accessible
to every organization and individual. Intelligent cloud services are becoming a
basic utility, just like running water and electricity.
Together,
both 5G and cloud form the two wings of Indonesia's digital machinery, carrying
Indonesia to the highest heights in this intelligent era. Moreover, Huawei has
unveiled plans to establish a cloud node in Indonesia by the middle of this
year. This will add to the momentum of Indonesia's digital economy, as it will
amplify advantages and values of 5G and Cloud.
Huawei’s consistent and robust investments
in R&D for 5G ecosystem developments
Huawei’s
research into 5G began all the way back in 2009. Since then, Huawei has
invested over $4 billion into 5G R&D efforts. Huawei has also been powering
up the 5G networks across the globe. According to the Global 5G Benchmark
Report by Ookla in August 2021, 10 major cities were selected to compare their
operators’ 5G network performance and 5G Availability, including Seoul, Bangkok, Zurich, Madrid,
Berlin, --- for the median download speed comparison--- all the operators which
chose Huawei as their 5G vendor ranked No.1 among all the 10 cities.
However,
5G is not only about how fast it is. Speaking of energy conservation and
emissions reductions, Huawei’s 5G power uses AI and other techniques to provide
a unified power supply platform for all scenarios. It does not only support higher
power module efficiency, but it can also reduce secondary losses by boosting
voltage, increasing end-to-end energy efficiency by 3 percent and helping
increase site energy efficiency by 5 percent. These all combined will in turn
enable operators build and operate 5G networks faster, more economically and
more easily. As some figures might speak louder, Huawei’s 5G power can reduce
reconstruction costs per site by more than US$1,831, conserve 4,130 kWh of
electricity per site per year, and slash carbon emissions by 1,125 kg per site
per year.
In
related developments in October last year, new release of Huawei’s 64T64R
MetaAAU – a comprehensive 5G solution – provides the ideal solution to improve
both network performance and energy efficiency using innovative hardware and
software to feature the product’s advantages in terms of user experience at
reduced energy costs. Hardware-wise, MetaAAU doubles antenna elements to 384
from that of a conventional AAU (192) in its enabled extremely large antenna
array (ELAA). ELAA is combined with ultra-light integrated array and signal
direct injection feeding (SDIF) to improve both coverage and integration.
Speaking of significantly improved user experience and bigger cell capacity,
MetaAAU features software using the Adaptive High Resolution (AHR) turbo
algorithm to provide precise, dynamic and targeted beamforming. This
combination of hardware and software leads to innovation in Massive MIMO
coverage and energy saving in which MetaAAU upgrades coverage by 3 dB and 6dB
and user experience metrics by 30% and 60% respectively as against predecessors
64T64R AAU and 32T32R AAU. MetaAAU is also a powerful energy-saving tool that
allows base stations to achieve the same level of coverage for cell-edge users
but with a lower transmit power, reducing energy consumption by approximately
30% over conventional AAUs.
Indeed,
the 5G ecosystem is maturing quickly.
This fast growth of 5G is also changing user requirements
— demanding a better, uninterrupted experience. At the same time, the push
toward carbon neutrality speeds up the adoption of more
environmentally-friendly products and solutions by the industry.
Huawei and contribution to People, the key
factor in 5G ecosystem equation
At
Huawei, we think of ourselves as more than a solutions provider. At the end of
the day, regardless of how advanced a solution may be, success still depends on
the most critical factor of all: the people factor. That’s why we’re working
with government, academia, industry, communities, and other stakeholders to
develop the people behind the system and ecosystem. Such quad-helix
collaborations are evinced by Huawei’s I Do commitments for the development of
the digital ecosystem in Indonesia.
In
2020, through ‘I Do Contribute’ commitment, Huawei reaffirmed its strong
presence for more than 22 years in Indonesia, to set 5-year target of
cultivating 100 thousands Indonesian digital talents. Plethora of programs,
lessons, initiatives have been launched, from 5G, AI, Cloud training courses,
Innovation Day, TechDay, ICT Competition, to Seeds for the Future program, to
achieve more than halfway of the target, or over than 52 thousand talents only
within 14 months.
Huawei
also laid solid infrastructure to ensure talent development keep going well
with the establishment of the Huawei ASEAN Academy Engineering Institute. The
facility is the most equipped in Asia Pacific, featuring a thousand trainers,
over 3,000 training lessons, and over 100 environments.
What's more, in the exciting world of
startups, Huawei has announced its plan to invest US$100 million in the Asia
Pacific region through its Spark Program, a startup incubator created with the
goal of building a sustainable startup ecosystem in the Asia Pacific region over
the next three years.
Keeping
up the momentum for building a fully connected, 5G-oriented, and green Indonesia
There
is no doubt 5G will usher in a new era of prosperity for the world as well as
for Indonesia, and will be the key infrastructure of Indonesia’s digital
economic transformation.
As
things stand, Indonesia still
has a lot to do. For example, Indonesia’s national mobile broadband speed was
rated at 23.12 Mbps as of October 2021. There’s great potential for Indonesia
to enhance its network quality. To fulfill this huge potential, Indonesia needs to accelerate
spectrum release and network infrastructure construction. Indonesia also
has to broaden and strengthen its industrial policies as outlined by the
Industry 4.0 roadmap, as well as consolidate its ecosystem of stakeholders in
order to fully capture and democratize the power of 5G.
The
combination of a 5G- and cloud-enabled digital transformation of the economy,
coupled with green energy development, presents our future with incredible
opportunities that will benefit everyone and further build a fully connected,
5G-oriented, more intelligent, digital, and green Indonesia together.