Bosch Connected World is seen as one of the most important high-tech and IT conferences in Germany. More than 100 speakers are getting together in Berlin in a variety of forums and numerous hackathons to tackle the ambitious topics of the future of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the ongoing digitization of business and industry. After Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and prior to CeBIT in Hanover, this industry summit is taking take place at STATION Berlin. One of the keynote speakers is Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG.
"The acronym IoT certainly doesn't stand for Island of Things," emphasized Höttges. True to its "Life is for sharing" brand value proposition, Deutsche Telekom stands for sharing and for community, and for establishing relationships between people and companies.
5G will revolutionize digitization
The network infrastructure and connectivity that will grow out of the "network of networks" created by 5G technology are the essential basis for the Internet of Things, for Industry 4.0, and for applications in relation to autonomous driving, stressed Höttges. "The more devices and machines that are connected, the smarter they grow."
Höttges is firmly convinced that 5G "will revolutionize digitization!"
The demands for bandwidth, lowest-possible latencies, high levels of security – all that will be a walk in the park for 5G. At the same time, it will be 5G that first allows billions of things to be linked connected, whether household appliances, connected cars, wearables, or medical devices.
Telecommunications corporations are already investing huge sums and creating state-of-the-art infrastructure with their eye on the Gigabit society. The Deutsche Telekom Group alone plans to invest some €12 billion in 2017.
But Höttges warns that when they're thinking about investments on this scale, companies need greater planning security and increased reliability.
Demand for new spectrum policy
"We, the industry as a whole, need one thing more than any other for the Internet of Things: spectrum, spectrum and more spectrum – as much as possible," said Höttges in Berlin. This means that in Europe, we need to explore new avenues when it comes to spectrum policy.
Instead of leasing frequency for a limited time period, as has been the case up to now, telcos need to be able to buy spectrum for the long term.
The telecommunications industry as a whole needs greater incentives for investment, while the Gigabit society calls for less regulation and a greater degree of trust in the market.
If we rethink our tactics in this way, there's a good chance that Europe can win the second half of the digitization match, after the first half saw the global competition walk away in the lead.