With most European operators targeting 2020 for its rollout, 5G is the term on everyone’s lips at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

How does 5G work?

Like the 4G networks currently widely available, 5G is based on radio frequencies, the same used for television broadcasts, walkie-talkies, wi-fi signals or a garage door remote control.

It will use a higher radio frequency which are not in use and can move data at a much faster speed.

But since higher radio frequencies don’t travel as far as lower frequencies, it will rely on denser arrays of small antennas and artificial intelligence to offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks.

What can it do?

5G will allow people to send texts, make calls, and browse the web as always — but will dramatically increase the speed at which data is transferred across the network.

This will make it easier to download and upload Ultra HD and 3D video and allow smartphones to run more complex mobile internet apps.

5G will also make room for the thousands of internet-connected devices entering our everyday world.

The combination of speed and quicker response times could unlock the full capabilities of other hot trends in technology, offering a boost to self-driving cars, drones, virtual reality and the wider Internet of Things.

Beyond speed, the biggest benefit of 5G is its low latency, or the short lag time between a device pinging the network and getting a response.

A 5G network virtually eliminates it, meaning a surgeon may not need to be in the same room as a patient in the future for example.

Why is 5G seen as essential?

The tech industry is counting on 5G to trigger a wave of growth in equipment sales and mobile services.

For years telecom operators and device makers have debated common standards, which will make it possible to have a similar network everywhere and develop products that could be targeted to it.

What are the obstacles to its adoption?

The industry is still fighting over the nitty-gritty details of the technology itself and a lack of common standards could slow its adoption.

5G compatible phones are still not on the market and in many countries 4G deployment is not yet complete. In a number of African countries it is only just starting.

Telecoms operators must make a massive investment to deploy 5G.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges has estimated the cost of providing 5G networks in Europe alone at EUR300 billion to EUR500 billion ($370 billion to $615 billion).

5G also faces competition from other technologies that may be better suited for the connected devices, such as French firm Sigfox’s non-cellular IoT network or LoRa, a rival non-standardised low power wide area (LPWA) offering backed by France-based Orange amongst others.

The announcement was made during a seminar that locally launched the recent World Bank report, “The Internet of Things: The New Government-to-Business Platform”.

Over 150 representatives from the Thai government, international organisations, businesses, NGOs and the media attended the seminar.

“The Internet of Things plays a key role in our daily lives,” said Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES).

“Recognizing the importance of IoT in creating digital innovation that will boost productivity and improve individual lives” the Ministry is working to promote its development through various initiatives, said Pichet.

The Ministry has spearheaded creation of the IoT Institute to nurture a healthy IoT ecosystem in Thailand. The seminar was the Institute’s first step “in promoting the development and adoption of this exciting technology,” said Pichet.

Policy recommendations include improving the knowledge and familiarity of IoT among most government agencies and its relevance to their immediate functions; translating “hype to reality” and preparing how-to “toolkits” to implement initiatives with IoT components; and disseminating “lessons” from peers, as many agencies are keen to learn about initiatives in other countries, and what had worked or had not.

Fujitsu developed the new service for the distribution industry, which is struggling with labor shortages. It shows on computer screens the distances that workers move and how long their activities take, monitoring these elements via sensors installed in warehouses.

The main feature of the new service is to check whether warehouse staff are using inefficient processes during their work.

In the future, the company plans to offer proposals about the most suitable staff allocations and workflows by using artificial intelligence (AI), Fujitsu officials said.

Fujitsu also offers similar services for retailers. The company aims to earn a total of ¥20 billion in sales from the service by fiscal 2020.

The case, which dates back to 2013, involves a US warrant ordering Microsoft to turn over the contents of an email account used by a suspected drug trafficker, whose data is stored in a cloud computing center in Ireland.

It has been watched closely because of its implications for privacy and surveillance in the digital age, and specifically how law enforcement can reach across borders to obtain digital evidence that may be scattered across the globe.

Microsoft has maintained that US courts lack jurisdiction over the data stored in Ireland.

The US tech giant, backed by many firms in the sector and civil liberties groups, argues the case is critical in showing that American authorities cannot simply request such data via a warrant without going through the process set out in law enforcement treaties between countries.

The Snowden effect

Microsoft president Brad Smith told reporters last week the principle is especially relevant after former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked details on global US surveillance programs in 2013.

“We’ve always said it was important to win this case to win the confidence of people around the world in American technology,” Smith said in a conference call.

Smith said officials in Europe have been notably concerned about the implications of a decision in favor of the US government, and that was made clear during a discussion with a German official on the case after a lower judge ruled against Microsoft.

“He said that unless we persist with this lawsuit and turned it around, no German state would ever store data in a data center operated by an American company,” Smith said.

Last year, a federal appeals court sided with Microsoft, overturning a district judge ruling.

Yet the case is complicated by the intricacies of cloud computing, which allow data to be split up and stored in multiple locations around the world even for a single user, and some analysts say the court has no good solution.

“The speed by which data can be moved about the globe, the fact of third-party control and the possibility of data being held in locations that have absolutely no connection to either the crime or target being investigated makes location of the 0s and 1s that comprise our emails a particularly poor basis for delimiting jurisdiction,” American University law professor Jennifer Daskal wrote on the Just Security blog.

“Conversely, there is a real risk that a straight-up US government win will — rightly or wrongly — be perceived around the world as US law enforcement claiming the right to access data anywhere, without regard to the countervailing sovereign interests. This creates a precedent that foreign nations are likely to mimic.”

‘Larger problem’

Both sides have said that any court decision may be flawed, and that Congress needs to address the issue by rewriting the 1986 Stored Communications Act at issue.

Microsoft’s Smith said he was encouraged by a bill introduced this year called the CLOUD Act that would authorize cross-border data warrants with countries that meet certain standards for privacy and civil liberties.

The proposal has the backing of the tech sector, according to Smith, and respects the laws of each country where a request is made.

John Carlin, a former assistant US attorney general for national security, agreed that a legislative solution is preferable.

“Regardless of how this case turns out, it’s not going to solve the larger problem,” Carlin said.

Carlin said current law affecting crimes with cross-border components are not designed for the digital age.

“The problem now is there is a lack of clarity over how you can serve traditional legal process for what used to be local crimes,” he added.

Carlin said the CLOUD bill could address the issues because it “provides incentives for countries that have protections for civil liberties.”

But some civil liberties activists have expressed concern the measure would expand US surveillance capabilities.

The measure “would give unlimited jurisdiction to US law enforcement over any data controlled by a service provider, regardless of where the data is stored and who created it,” said Camille Fischer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

It also “creates a dangerous precedent for other countries who may want to access information stored outside their own borders, including data stored in the United States,” she said.

The South Korean firm showcased the Galaxy S9 on the eve of the official start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which comes after a year of flat smartphone sales.

With no other major handset maker using the annual event, the world’s largest phone show, to launch a new flagship device this year, Samsung had the opportunity to grab the spotlight.

The S9 features essentially the same design as last year’s previous flagship, with the full screen and curved glass edge of the S8, which was followed by Apple’s iPhone X and others.

But it includes louder sound, a faster processor and software that turns selfies into animated emojis, which will appeal to consumers who are increasingly preferring to use their phones to send text messages rather than talking.

Samsung also included a dual lense camara on the Galaxy S line for the first time, which will improve low-light capture and enhance slow motion video, which is popular on social media.

A service powered by artificial intelligence (AI) allows users to point its camera to instantly translate a sign in a foreign language.

It is also one of the few flagship phones left that still comes with a standard headphone jack.

“Despite these incremental innovations, Samsung will have to smartly leverage its brand and marketing machine to correctly position the new smartphones to a target audience,” said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.

Global smartphone sales fell by 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter due to slower than expected Christmas sales, according to research firm IDC.

Overall global smartphone sales for 2017 were virtually flat — down 0.1 percent at 1.47 billion units — as phone makers struggled to come up with innovations that encourage customers to upgrade their devices.

Cost concerns

Samsung suffered a humiliating recall of its Galaxy Note 7 device in 2016 after several devices exploded, but its Galaxy 8 smartphone was a consumer and critical success.

While it kept its lead over Apple as the world’s biggest seller of smartphones in 2017 with a 21.6 percent market share, up from 21.1 percent in the previous year, Samsung faces stiffer competition from Chinese rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi that offer cheaper handsets with many high-end features.

The S9 will sell for 859 euros ($1,055), a price which analysts warned could turn off many consumers.

While the S9’s camera is “markedly different” in quality from older smartphones that people already own “consumers may delay purchase because of rising flagship prices,” IHS Markit said in a research note.

“Samsung must work hard to market the benefits of these designs to counter negative pricing perception.”

Huawei unveiled a new laptop and tablet in Barcelona earlier on Sunday but will present its new flagship smartphone — the P20 — on March 27 in Paris.

Thomas said this will allow it to “fine tune its marketing message based on how the new Samsung S9 devices are perceived by consumers”.

Earlier on Sunday South Korea’s LG unveiled the V30S — an updated version of its flagship V30 smartphone launched six months ago — which features higher memory and artificial intelligence-based technologies that focus on photos and voice recognition.

More than 100,000 people are expected to descend on Barcelona for the annual show, which features driverless carmakers, social media giants and chip companies in addition to handset makers.

A pilot project involving three Thai medical research facilities and a China-based genomics company will build a genome-sequence database of Thais in order to better match medical treatment to patient needs.

The Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS), Thailand Research Fund (TRF), and Ramathibodi Hospital’s Centre for Medical Genomics have together teamed up with Shenzen-based BGI Genomics, one of the world’s genome sequencing centres, to collect the entire genome sequence for Thais.

The five-year pilot project will collect the whole 19,000 genome sequencing of 10,000 Thai volunteers. The results of the pilot project would then form the initial data as a national “bio-bank” for Thais is kicked off.

The sequencing work will begin at a TCELS lab, before being expanded and moved to Thailand Science Park, which will also serve as the home of the national bio-bank data centre.

Sirisak Tapakam, TCELS’ deputy director for academic affairs and innovation, said that collected genomic information will help ensure that Thais receive precise medical treatment in future.

“We have been running genome sequencing of 120 Thai people,” said Sirisak. “Under this pilot project, we will collect the whole 19,000 genomes in each of 10,000 people. We really hope this will accelerate further genome sequencing for the whole population.

“The beauty of having genome sequencing information is it helps the country improve public health policy and platforms,” he said.

Under the collaboration, BGI Genomics will support the computer-based sequencing technology.

Jeremy Cao, general manager for BGI Asia Pacific, said that the company wanted to be involved in helping create a national precision-medicine ecosystem to benefit the Thai people.

“We will support the computing machinery and share our experience running genome sequencing,” said Cao. “We will not be in control of the genome data of Thai people.”

This Thailand pilot project sequencing the Thai genome is one component in a regional collaboration called the “Pilot Project on Southeast Asian Human Genome and Human Biobank Network”. It is run through the Southeast Asian Pharmacogenomics Research Network (Seapharm), along with the International Research Network Programme (IRN) and supported by the Thailand Research Fund, one of the three local partners in the Thai genome collection project.

Seapharm has teamed up with a Japan-based research institute, the Riken Centre for Integrative Medical Science, to develop genome sequencing focusing on 100 drug-related genes for 1,000 subjects in the SEA region. That project’s aim is to research genome sequencing associated with drug use.

“It is the genetic testing to identify genes associate with drug allergies, [to allow for future] individualised therapy for Thai patients as well as among patients throughout the Asian region,” said Sirisak.

He added that the achievement of the genome-sequencing project will augment and support the medical and health industries, one of the S-Curve industry clusters identified as a priority by the Thailand government.

Pongsakorn Tantileepikorn, TRF’s assistant director for International Research Networks and International Affairs, said the genome projects could also help position Thailand for a leading role in the Asian corridor for pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine. The country could perhaps even develop sufficient capacity to reach the regional pinnacle in pharmacogenomics.

Meanwhile, Wasun Chantratila, director of the Centre for Medical Genomics at Ramathibodi Hospital, spoke up for the SEA genome-sequencing project focusing on 100 drug-related genes for 1,000 subjects. That research could solve three significant problems in drug use – avoiding allergic reactions by knowing of vulnerability in advance, ineffective use of drugs, and adjusting doses to match genetic profiles for each person. It could also further add to “predictive medicine” as well.

There are several conditions where gene testing could lead to better matching of drugs by individualised application of medicine, said Wasun. “The medication for treatment in some patient can lead to life-threatening side-effects. In other case, some patients do not respond to a particular drug.

“The goal is to find the right drug and the suitable drug dose for the right patient to achieve the best benefit before therapy,” said Wasun.

The ultimate goal is also to hope the result of the two genome sequencing projects (the 100 drug-related genes sequences from 1,000 subjects in SEA, and the 19,000 genome sequences from 10,000 Thais) will provide sufficient data to allow government to make decisions about adjusting and improving public health policy and more efficient budget spending.

Wasun said that three Thai hospitals – Ramathibodi Hospital, Siriraj Hospital, and Chulalongkorn Hospital – have been providing pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine for their patients for five years. At Ramathibodi Hospital alone, some 3,000 patients have benefited from pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine and receive partial reimbursement for some drugs.

Nearly 1,400 deals involving SEA’s Internet companies in 2016 and 2017 saw investments in series A and seed rounds. It shows that there are a lot of opportunities for Thai Internet companies, said Ben King, country director of Google Thailand.

The country’s Internet economy was valued at $10 billion in 2017, up from $5.8 billion in 2015, and it is projected to reach $37 billion by 2025.

E-commerce saw the highest growth at 43 per cent during 2015 to 2017. Meanwhile, online travel was the largest sector with $6.2 billion, followed by e-commerce with $1.8 billion. Thailand’s e-commerce market (in term of total gross merchandise value) is expected to reach $11.1 billion in 2025, with 12 times the growth rate in 10 years from 2015 (which was $0.9 billion).

“At Google, we’re committed to supporting Thailand to reach its enormous opportunity,” said King. “We will support Thailand in realising the opportunities and needs of its Internet economy by helping to train its people and businesses – from the largest e-commerce players to the smallest local stores – to reach new customers in Thailand and around the world.”

In 2017 alone, $7.7 billion was invested in SEA start-ups, almost doubling the $4.4 billion invested in 2016, according to the “e-Conomy Southeast Asia Spotlight 2017” report.

King noted the report’s forecast that the SEA Internet economy would reach $200 billion in 2025.

According to the report, there are $40 billion to $50 billion in funds required over the 10 years from 2015 to 2025, to build the whole forcasted $200 billion SEA Internet economy.

However, the report also unveiled a trend that seed global and regional investors concentrating their bets by putting their majority of funds into the unicorns – start-ups having more than $1 billion in valuation.

From 2016 to the third quarter of 2017, $9 billion in funding was injected into the unicorns, $1.4 billion invested in companies having value between $100 million to $1 billion, and $1.9 billion invested in companies having valuations below $100 millions.

SEA itself has spawned seven unicorns – Grab, Lazada, SEA (a Singapore-based Internet platform), Razer (a gaming hardware company), Go-Jek (an Indonesian hyperlocal transport, logistics and payments start-up), Tokopedia (one of Indonesia’s biggest online marketplaces), and Traveloka (an Indonesian online travel aggregator).

The report was co-developed by Google and Temasek and studied four key areas of the Internet economy, including e-commerce, online media, ride-hailing, and online travel. It did not include education, entertainment, financial services or healthcare.

Teerachart Kortrakul, CEO and co-founder of StockRadars, said the innovation aims to make investment easy and simple for everyone. The pre-sale of ICO will be on March 22. It will sell 120 million tokens, worth a total of $12 million, with the funds to be used to develop the social trading platform.

The concept behind the social trading platform is to enable those investors new to cryptocurrency trading to follow the leading cryptocurrency investors (the “leader”) in order to automatically invest in cryptocurrency in parallel with the leaders.

Followers will share with the leaders 10 per cent of their profit from every single cryptocurrency trade. The leaders, in turn, will share with the company 10 per cent of those rewards from followers. The company will receive 1 per cent from every single transaction that made a profit.

Meanwhile, the company will spend 20 per cent of its annual profit to buy back its tokens at the market price at the time.

“Targeted users for this service are not limited to Thais but anyone in the global market,” said Teerachart. “The beauty of the social trading platform is to leverage the playing field. It is to create new career opportunities for the new generations who are keen on cryptocurreny trading to be able to have income.”

He said the social trading platform could apply for stock trading once the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allows it.

Currently, StockRadars has partnered with leading brokers in Thailand and overseas to provide real-time stock trading data, or StockRadars, via the mobile app. There have been about 680,000 downloads. StockRadars have also partnered with LINE Thailand to develop trading services with three brokers, including Krungsri Securities, Yuanta Securities, and Globlex Securities, via LINE Finance.

The trend bolsters trade transactions between suppliers and consumers, driving the growth of e-commerce. Online transactions are set to rise to 8.2 per cent from 4.8 per cent in 2017, thanks to the increased awareness of consumers. Purchasing goods via a smartphone has become an important trend.

E-commerce business has now evolved to fit the mobile phone platform. An expansion of digital technology toward mobile commerce has shattered physical boundaries and enabled everyone to post advertising on social media. The opportunity to sell goods via mobile phones is limitless and enjoying a bullish trend. Technologies for new mobile devices are constantly developed, and help make online transactions via mobile phones an exciting experience, along with providing and new business opportunities for both the buyers and sellers.

This trend is lately further propelled by the Bank of Thailand’s approval for commercial banks and their financial businesses to offer e-marketplace platform service as a channel for trading goods and services as well as making online payments. They are also allowed to use “big data” for product development and presentation and for their financial management.

Kasikorn Research Centre sees the online platform as gaining a more prominent role as both marketing and transaction channels, driven by the rise of a new generation of consumers familiar with new communications technology. Value chains that embrace all related businesses will offer a comprehensive system to better meet the needs of consumers.

Such a trend presents both opportunities and challenges that require business operators to make adjustments in their approach.

Business in this era should link physical stores with virtual transactions or online-to-offline (OSO) because sales opportunity can happen anywhere and anytime. Operators may mix various types of platforms by choosing the right ones for their businesses, or connecting each platform through a multi-online channel to match their business characteristics and their target groups.

The e-marketplace platform has drawn strong attention because it can identify the sources of products, enhancing its credibility for customers.

It can be verified by a simple management system with merchants categorised into groups, plus the customer-friendly purchasing and payment systems. This should enable entrepreneurs to add more value to their businesses.

Kasikornbank has recently announced its readiness to provide full-scale and comprehensive e-marketplace service to create new shopping experiences. The bank gears toward facilitating its base of 14 million customers, of which over 8 million of them are already using this e-marketplace. The bank’s customer base of 1.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises will bolster the online community because 200,000 of them are already online merchants, with a combined online transaction exceeding Bt100 billion monthly.

Kasikornbank will assist as a centrepoint for myriad products and services from small merchants – as well as companies from numerous business sectors – to make those transactions more convenient, faster and safer, and with no additional time constraints.

KBank is not only the first bank to announce its readiness to enter the market after the Bank of Thailand’s permission, but has also introduced “machine learning” technology to select goods to match the consumer’s demand. Th technology effectively creates a massive online flea-market network linking buyers and suppliers, most of whom are entrepreneurs wishing to expand their businesses online.

Data analytics and machine learning will make shopping an engaging experience. Small business owners or merchants will find a new world of markets and be able to offer goods and services that better match the needs of target groups, while also being able to better communicate with them.

At the same time, retail customers will be offered the best products to meet their preferences.

KBank is now testing e-marketplace services with a group of employees for the Valentine’s Day festival. They can order flowers from select shops at special prices and with free delivery service, with the flowers arriving at their loved one’s doorstep.

Kasikornbank will launch its e-marketplace service around mid-March to create an enjoyable shopping experience on smartphones. Customers will be able to select merchandise on the platform by checking the list of merchants matching their lifestyles such as agricultural produce from the “Pruanfun” project, as well as goods from retail entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises and other merchandise from the bank’s partners. This year, KBank plans to introduce over 30 million items to customers.

Patchara Samalapa is Kasikornbank’s senior executive vice president.