Nokia and Smart, PLDT’s mobile arm, are working together to bring Industry 4.0 to Southeast Asia (SEA).

This follows the recent announcement that Nokia and Smart were first in the Philippines and the SEA region, to complete a live 5G “standalone” video call. Standalone refers to systems, such as Nokia’s cloud-native core solutions, that are entirely based on 5G technology and do not rely on previous generations’ network architecture.

5G services are expected to enable efficient deployment and operations of 5G networks.

Standalone systems will become increasingly important as the Philippines and the entire region move toward Industry 4.0, in which industry becomes increasingly connected. According to McKinsey and Company, Industry 4.0 is expected to deliver between $216 billion and $627 billion in value among the member economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

A key component of this architecture is network slicing, which allows service providers to partition their networks into discrete “slices” to support specific use cases or sectors. Coupled with ultra-reliable low-latency capability, network slicing will enable the delivery of new use cases, such as real-time remote control of robotics, autonomous transport vehicles, and other enterprise-led 5G use cases.

Nokia’s Cloud Packet Core enables the profitable delivery of enhanced broadband, Internet of Things (IoT), and machine-type communication (MTC) services while evolving to a 5G Core.

“Southeast Asia is already home to the world’s top social media users, and 5G will bring them faster connections, but its true beneficiaries will be industry sectors,” said Andrew Cope, head of Philippines at Nokia. “The trial we conducted with Smart shows that Industry 4.0 can become reality for the Southeast Asian region. The opportunities are immense, and we are looking forward to working with Smart to allow the Philippines, and the wider region, to reap the rewards of 5G.”

Nokia’s 5G AirScale Base Station, which supports a complete range of indoor and outdoor radio solutions including Massive MIMO (mMIMO) solutions, are central to the capacity leap provided by 5G. The Nokia’s Airframe and Cloud Band Infrastructure Management Software and Nokia’s cloud-native 5G core stack to will support the completion of E2E capabilities.

“By working with partners like Nokia in unlocking the full potential of 5G for Filipino enterprises and customers, we are putting the Philippines at par with the rest of the world in preparing for the deployment and adoption of 5G,” said Joachim Horn, CTO and information advisor at PLDT and Smart.