It seems not too long ago that the fourth generation (4G) wireless technology was introduced in major cities, Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Sumatra in Indonesia. The archipelago has not even familiarized itself with the use of it when telecommunications operators are already talking about adapting 5G network. Much of the talks in the first half of the year were mere speculations. After all, the country is still behind against neighboring countries when it comes to connectivity speed. However, what other people thought as mere rumors were proven true when XL Axiata, one of the Big Three providers in Indonesia dragged its latest acquisition, Axis Capital Group, another telecommunications operator to the First Indonesian and Japan Forum on 5G and Connectivity  held in Bali last September 21, 2015.

The same initiative to introduce 5G in the market is already adapted by some universities in the United States, granted by the government grants and/or private industries.

South Korea, on the other hand has accepted it as a necessity since they dominate 30% of mobile gadgets globally with 78% of its 50 million population use smartphones. The country is also known to have the fastest connectivity in the world, surpassing Singapore who held the record for the 5 consecutive years.

Reviewing the efforts of Japan, the initiative traces back to 2013 when Ad Hoc Group started ARIB “2020 and beyond”. Telecommunications infrastructure was then studied in the country and the future possibilities for 2020 were analyzed. 

XL Axiata sees the potential of the country to lead the world in the use of the internet which is why it aims to get ahead of the game along with other leaders, learn the latest and apply it back home. Indeed, statistics have shown Jakarta as the most active city in Twitter with 2.4 million users. The country’s capital is also one of the top in most Facebook users, second to Bangkok.

The forum has discussed the four strategies to undertake to fully achieve complete usage of 5G network: the classical that is related to radio and network technologies, opportunity which is related to the newest innovation such as IoT and M2M, unique which refers to the protection of data and country- specific which refers to the spectrum.

Some countries are already on the move to test 5G out. South Korea is to test theirs in the winter Olympics of 2018. Indonesia, despite complaints on its network capacity and fluctuating speed, has promised to apply theirs soon enough.  

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