PRESS RELEASE

Nearly 90% of federal agencies are planning to adopt 5G, according to a new study released by General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), a business unit of General Dynamics. But agencies also face several challenges, including budget and cybersecurity concerns.

The research study, Enterprise to the Edge: Agency Guide to 5G, surveyed 500 officials from civilian, defense and intelligence agencies to analyze the progress the federal government is making to deploy 5G capabilities, the benefits and challenges agencies are expecting, and what mission impacts it will have. Of the 500 officials surveyed, 40% work at federal civilian agencies, 40% at defense agencies, and 20% at intelligence and homeland security agencies.

According to the research study, most federal agencies have begun their 5G journeys and understand its impact.

• 89% are planning to adopt 5G, with 44% already piloting or deploying 5G.
• As agencies establish 5G mission objectives, 23% expect that 5G will be highly impactful to their strategies in 2023, with that impact tripling within five years to 69%.
• More than half are making 5G an investment priority in 2023.

Digging deeper, the research found that federal agencies plan to use 5G in two general categories: networking and connectivity, and mission-enabling applications.

• In the near term, 77% of respondents said they planned to adopt 5G technology for improved network capability. Platform connectivity – connecting internet of things (IoT) devices to the enterprise – is second at 61%. Smart infrastructure – enabling intelligent decisions at the edge – ranks third at 50%.
• Over the long term, agencies are planning mission-enablement use cases. Command and control – taking an action quickly with low-latency data processing – ranks at the top (41%). Logistics and manufacturing – managing supply chain processes – is second at 28%.

“Many agencies are still developing use cases and identifying the enabling technology that will make 5G transformative for them,” said Ben Gianni, GDIT’s senior vice president and chief technology officer. “But they know their 5G future is coming. Agencies that identify their primary mission outcomes and relevant 5G uses cases will be better positioned to deploy the optimal 5G solution cost-efficiently and with minimal risk.”

The data also showed that agencies are anticipating myriad challenges with implementing and managing 5G technology.

• 91% cite costs and budget as a top concern.
• 87% are concerned about increased cybersecurity risks due to an expanded attack surface from more remote devices.
• 83% identify integrating 5G capabilities into the rest of the organization as a challenge.

While budget remains a concern, agencies are starting to make 5G a priority. Overall, 58% say 5G will be an investment priority in the next 12 months, with that number growing to 79% in the next 3 years.

“The move to 5G is significant with enormous potential, and it is crucial to keep the bigger picture in mind,” said Shuaib Porjosh, director for advanced wireless at GDIT. “Investing in 5G is not only an imperative for today, as previous networks like 3G are decommissioned, but it is also an investment in the technology of the future. 6G is not far behind 5G, and the sooner agencies can position themselves to take advantage of those opportunities, the more effective they will be at driving value from the technology.”

General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defence company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; ship construction and repair; land combat vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions; and technology products and services. General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $38.5 billion in revenue in 2021. More information about General Dynamics Information Technology is available at www.gdit.com. More information about General Dynamics is available at www.gd.com.

5G progress and potential will form a keynote discussion at Connected America next March in Dallas. To join in the discussion, visit the website www.totaltele.com/connectedamerica

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News

Optus had suggested to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that they would make a better sharing partner for TPG

Back in February, TPG and Telstra struck a major network sharing agreement, set to provide both parties with key mobile assets they are currently missing; Telstra will allow TPG access to roughly 3,700 of its mobile towers in various parts of the country, with TPG in turn allowing Telstra to share 4G and 5G spectrum.

The operators heralded the deal as a boon for customers, with Telstra able to provide its customers with greater speeds and capacity, while expanding TPG’s 4G coverage from 96% to 98.8% of the country.

Not all of the market agreed, however, with the duo’s local rival Optus arguing that the move disincentivise them to invest in the more rural parts of Australia.

“This arrangement is not a sharing arrangement,” said Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin earlier this summer. “It is an arrangement where TPG withdraws from rural Australia and gets access to a network owned and operated by Telstra, paying Telstra for every customer it onboards to Telstra’s network.”

Optus countered by proposing to the ACCC that they should be the preferred partner a potential network sharing agreement with TPG, suggesting that this would provide better value for customer and maintain market competition.

Last month, Optus said that a network sharing deal with TPG was a “real commercial likelihood” if the ACCC were to reject the TPG–Telstra deal.

The ACCC regulator has proved relatively receptive to these arguments, leading TPG and Telstra to propose some concessions in earlier this month – most notably reducing the length of the sharing deal from ten years to eight.

This week, however, TPG has kyboshed the suggests of teaming up with Optus instead, saying in a letter to the ACCC that Optus was simply outcompeted by Telstra in this regard and was now seeking to force a less favourable deal upon TPG.

“Now, having had the benefit of seeing the proposed transaction and its terms, Optus wishes to use the authorisation process to remove Telstra as a competitor in relation to network sharing and leave it free to impose a less attractive, alternative transaction on TPG,” read the letter, which noted that Optus had been in the process of formulating its own network sharing proposal with TPG when the Telstra deal was announced.

“In light of the above evidence, it would be a perverse outcome and dangerous precedent for a competitor in the position of Optus to ultimately be successful in having the ACCC reject an otherwise pro-competitive transaction by threatening to withdraw their investment in the face of increased competition.”

A decision by the ACCC is expected to be made by the end of the year.

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