GSMA’S APAC 5G Industry Community Celebrates Its First Year

GSMA community has grown rapidly to more than 2,000 members from over 60 countries, with further growth expected in 2023

25 October 2022, Bangkok: GSMA today celebrated one year since it formed the APAC 5G Industry Community which now includes more than 700 member organisations and 2,000 individuals from 66 countries – making it the fastest growing GSMA community in the Asia Pacific region. Building on this success, there are plans for further growth into vertical markets in 2023 with an ‘alliance of alliances’ initiative.

The APAC 5G Industry Community was announced by the GSMA in October last year with founding members including AIS, Axiata, depa, DHL, Globe, Huawei, Kominfo, Maxis, MDEC, Schneider Electric, Telkomsel and Viettel. The ecosystem was established for all stakeholders across the 5G industry, including government agencies, industry associations and mobile network providers, to support collaboration on Industry 4.0 and digital transformation built on 5G networks, edge-cloud services, enterprise IoT and AI.

Speaking at the 13th Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) in Bangkok, Julian Gorman, Head of APAC, GSMA, said, “We want to continue our growth by expanding vertical market engagement – with organisations representing industries from medicine to mining – to create an ‘alliance of alliances’. This approach will enable us to reach communities that traditionally have been outside the mobile ecosystem to drive collaboration for them across the 5G value chain. To expedite this growth, GSMA is pledging to support for any national or international alliances led by MNOs, governments or industry associations with an interest in 5G.”

The APAC 5G Industry Community has hosted several virtual workshops throughout the year and has been the catalyst for collaboration, confirming further alliances with:

  • Bridge Alliance, with 34 members across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.
  • The Thailand 5G Alliance, founded by the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA).
  • Greater Bay Area 5G Industry Alliance, with members in Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and eight more cities in the Guangdong provinces.
  • Holomedicine Association, with 1000+ worldwide healthcare researchers and experts.
  • Maxis’ 5G Alliance Programme in Malaysia.
  • Telkomsel’s 5G Experience Centre in Indonesia.

In addition, the APAC 5G Industry Community has published a series of best-in-class 5G case studies spanning industries including manufacturing, logistics and ports and healthcare from AIS, HKT, M1, Singtel, Telkomsel and True.

CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS’ QUOTES

Advanced Info Services Plc (AIS)
Tanapong Ittisakulchai, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, AIS, said, “AIS keeps investing digital technology infrastructure to support Thailand’s digital economy. AIS has collaborated with various industries to enable and accelerate their digital transformations effectively to gain more competitive advantages. Our key objective is to bring 5G benefits to large enterprises, SMEs, and public agencies. As one of the founding members, we believe that the APAC 5G Industry Community by GSMA is the crucial regional partnership to complete 5G ecosystem in APAC and Thailand.”

Axiata Group Berhad
“We’re pleased to be part of the GSMA Asia Pacific 5G Industry Community which enables us to share 5G development progress across sectors and markets,” said Dr. Gopi Kurup, CEO, Axiata Enterprise. “The community is a successful platform for people who are passionate about 5G and want to spread 5G benefits to industries and enterprises. It is a great place to connect with peers and share the knowledge on how to build the next generation mobile ecosystem.”

Bridge Alliance

Ken Wee, SVP Partnership and Innovation, Bridge Alliance said: “As 5G expansion continues throughout the region, Bridge Alliance creates value by working together with our member operators to accelerate adoption by removing friction for regional deployments. Our Federated Edge Hub is an example of how we collaborate to reduce complexity for users and ensure telcos’ share of market growth in edge compute demand. Through platforms like the GSMA, communities like ours can benefit from the wider industry sharing on how 5G technology is driving digital transformation applications. Congratulations to the GSMA APAC5GIC on its first anniversary and the contributions it has made to the 5G community!”

Globe

“We’re honored to have a continuous partnership with the GSMA Asia Pacific 5G Industry Community. The alliance paves the way for learning opportunities and collaborative projects that can help further propel Industry 4.0 and deliver end-to-end IoT solutions over 5G. We believe that 5G is critical in driving digitalization initiatives, which our customers have become accustomed to embracing. We look forward to partnering with them as we expand our product portfolio and create more 5G-enabled solutions,” said Chris Cheng, Vice President, Connectivity and Digital Products, Globe Business Enterprise Group.

Holomedicine Association
“Healthcare systems of the future should not and will not remain in isolation. Cross-cooperation and capabilities including interconnectivity, cloud computing, real-time data analytics and integrated networks, will help to bring about unparalleled enhancements to patient care and health delivery. 5G is, in our opinion from the Holomedicine Association, a key enabler of that high-speed network allowing seamless and efficient transfer data that will bring this vision to reality,” commented Dr. Gao Yujia, Deputy Group CTO, National University Health System (NUHS) and Vice Chairman of the Holomedicine Association.

Huawei
Mr. Sean Xu, Huawei’s Chief Marketing Officer of the Asia region, concluded, “It is time to define what the critical requirements are for 5G applications for different industries. We need to figure out what problems we are trying to solve. To support this, the APAC 5G Industry Community provides important industry feedback and communicates directly with solution providers, which is perfectly matched with Huawei’s 5G partner strategies. This supports further innovative use cases to accompany the mature 5G use cases we already support in Asia.”

Maxis

“Maxis is committed to bringing 5G to the nation, and we are excited to leverage the benefits that the technology will bring to enterprises. We have been developing multi-industry use cases and are working closely with our 5G Alliance partners to create, fast track and commercialise use cases enabled by 5G, IoT, Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) – from Autonomous Mobile Robots in manufacturing powered by Maxis’ next generation network to co-creating testbeds for R&D for innovative solutions powered by advanced technologies. With APAC being a huge market with immense opportunities, we will continue to play our role as a catalyst for regional support to educate industries and strengthen the ecosystem through collaboration and advocacy. We are proud to have grown our 5G Alliance and are excited to accelerate technology breakthroughs to benefit multiple industries,” said Gokhan Ogut, Chief Executive Officer, Maxis.

MDEC

“Malaysia was recently inducted into the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), garnering 147 of the 180 votes cast, a glowing endorsement of the nation’s leadership in the telecommunications and digital economy sectors in ASEAN. MDEC is ready to play a leading role in the proliferation of 5G-driven 4IR solutions across industries and enterprises. Consistent and continuous private-public engagements will form effective collaborations and this is also in line with the new strategic national initiative by MDEC, Malaysia Digital (MD), which seeks to catalyse the growth of the digital ecosystem, and we are proud to be a part of this platform,” said Ts. Mahadhir Aziz, CEO of MDEC.

Telkomsel

“Telkomsel, as the first operator to launch 5G in Indonesia, has ambition to differentiate its 5G offerings beyond connectivity towards various enterprise solutions need. In Sept 2022, Telkomsel has continued its consistency in introducing 5G use case by collaborating with PT Freeport Indonesia in implementing the first 5G Underground Smart Mining in Southeast Asia. 5G Technology Underground Smart Mining will improve productivity, save energy consumption, reduce operation cost, increase safety as it enables real-time monitoring mechanism. In addition to mining, Telkomsel also explore 5G potential for manufacturing industry. To which, Telkomsel work together with Ministry of Industry to drive companies’ transformation towards Industry 4.0 by taking part in setting up Industry 4.0 Digital Center as part of government’s implementation effort in the roadmap of Making Indonesia 4.0. As member of GSMA APAC 5G Industry community, such partnership will bring new experiences and opportunities for many businesses in their digital transformation journey,” said Hanang Setiohargo, Vice President Enterprise Product Management, Telkomsel.

The Greater Bay Area 5G Industry Alliance

“5G network technology will bring a great change to every industry. As the application of new technology, such as AI, IoT, Cloud Computing, big data, and Edge Computing, becomes dramatically increasing; we can foresee the next few years will be an age of convergence. The Greater Bay Area 5G Industry Alliance is honored to participate in the GSMA APAC 5G Industry Community (APAC5GIC) and with the platform we are looking forward to engage more business partners and organizations in APAC region,“ said Johnson Zhang, Director and Vice Chairman of the Greater Bay Area 5G Industry Alliance.

Over the next 12 months, the GSMA will look to expand the APAC 5G Industry Community through more partnerships, workshops and case studies from its members. New Industry Community and Alliance Summit events are also under consideration for 2023, with additional benefits for community members including:

  • A regular newsletter with the latest 5G industry developments and insights.
  • Access to Industry Interest Group activities.
  • Inclusion in 5G industry reports and case studies.
  • Opportunities to speak and showcase in GSMA 5G activities. i.e., webinars, conferences, and a new 5G tour.
  • A bespoke networking service where businesses are matched with innovators, social impact enterprises, and mobile operators.
  • Access to the first official 5G devices and application ecosystem list, enabling members to identify and introduce themselves to new partners.

To find out more on the APAC 5G Industry Community, please visit: https://www.gsma.com/asia-pacific/communities/ap5gic/