Ciena, a telecommunications networking equipment and software services supplier, found that as 5G technology continues to make headway in Asia, businesses are optimistic about the value it will bring. In fact, 31% of survey respondents from Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines agree that the biggest impact of 5G lies in the enablement of business transformation and the ability to power more digital applications.

“5G is no longer just hype but a reality as organizations recognize that the real impact is on enterprise applications,” said Anup Changaroth, chief technology officer of the Asia Pacific and Japan at Ciena. “As 5G catalyzes digital transformation, sectors from entertainment to healthcare and automotive will rely on applications that require real-time latency. This shift toward edge cloud ensures content and data can be delivered to end-users more efficiently, driving higher quality digital experiences.”

Businesses across Asia remain ready to invest in 5G. Most businesses claim that 5G will have a significant benefit for business use cases, including industrial and/or corporate applications (30%) and virtual business collaborations (30%) — more so than consumer applications, such as gaming or esports (15%) or smart vehicles (13%). Also, 1 in 2 respondents said their company is willing to allocate up to 15% of their IT budget for 5G implementation.

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However, adopting 5G is not without challenges. Almost 4 in 10 (39%) companies cited the lack of infrastructure as the top barrier, followed by talent and skills shortage (19%). To adopt 5G effectively, the survey found that 87% agreed that it requires having the technology and infrastructure and 70% need an understanding of current network capabilities and gaps.

With 5G accelerating the adoption of digital applications like robotics and virtual reality, these compute-intensive and latency-sensitive applications will place additional pressure on network capacities. The survey reinforces that 5G-enabled digital transformation will need to go hand-in-hand with networks that can adapt as well as dynamically respond to the ever-changing network demands of an always-on digital economy.