Several telecom service providers are making substantial progress towards the commercial deployment of the fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand and investments in 5G technology have not been affected due to its security, reliability and advance features that will change the future market. A 96% surge in influencer conversations on ‘5G’ theme was observed on Twitter during the first half (H1) of 2020 over H2 2019, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Telecom Influencer Platform, which tracks industry experts and their discussions around the emerging trends insights and overviews, new fields of innovation and technology, and other popular areas on Twitter, has revealed ‘Huawei’ as the most mentioned company among influencer discussions on ‘5G’, followed by ‘Ericsson’, ‘Verizon’, ‘Qualcomm’ and ‘Samsung Electronics’.
The conversations on ‘Huawei’ spiked more than 100% in H1 2020 over H2 2019, largely led by the fact that the UK decided to allow Huawei to build parts for its 5G network countries in January 2020, which was a setback for the US, as it has been pushing allies to ban the company due to security risks. But, recently the UK too decided to join other countries and banned Huawei from its 5G network. Another conversation driver for Huawei was its product and solutions launch event, which was held in London in February 2020.
Prashant Saxena, Influencer Expert at GlobalData, says: “5G has an enormous influence and tendency to transform industry applications. The technology helps to broaden the development in various industries like autonomous vehicles, smart city initiatives, IoT adoption and promises exciting opportunities for consumers and enterprises by creating a new business value.”
‘Ericsson’ saw about 170% increase in influencer conversations from H2 2019 to H1 2020. The conversations related to Ericsson were led by the fact that Singapore’s largest telecom provider Singapore Telecommunications selected ‘Ericsson’ over ‘Huawei’ as its 5G network provider, along with Bell Canada and Telus.
The conversations on ‘Verizon’ were driven by the potential applications of 5G showcased by the company at the Verizon 5G stadium at the Super Bowl Live in Miami. This was the first time customers accessed a commercial 5G ultra-wideband network inside the stadium during the Super bowl.
Saxena concludes: “Telecom companies around the globe have been busy supporting their customers due to the surge in network traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is therefore expected that these response measures from companies can temporarily halt their 5G deployment plans.”
