Will edge computing and 5G be part of the next big shift of communications service provider business models? Many now believe so. And one big implication might be that communication networks matter less than they used to, in terms of creating the value of “communications.”
Yes, networks are fundamental. But so is electricity, and it is hard to say that 20th century or early 21st century innovations are created directly by electricity. Rather, it is all the things made possible because electricity is available that matter.
That is not to belittle or minimize the centrality of electricity. Try and imagine living without it for an extended period of time. Still, electricity is a foundation for the devices, software, platforms, use cases and solutions that depend on electricity.
And we might be approaching an era where communications capabilities increasingly resemble electricity. Perhaps it always has been so.
Technology is “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.” The key notion there is of tools created for some human purpose. If you have been in the technology or communications business long enough, you are accustomed to hearing about “solutions” rather than software, hardware or technology as the “product” being sold by a particular supplier.
Nokia Bell Labs has positioned the future of networking as one where the value proposition for connectivity is quite different. The thesis is that communications network value will be created to the extent that it “creates time” for people and augments human intelligence.
Nokia does that mean that in the astrophysics sense of manufacturing time itself. Think of the word “productivity” or “efficiency” and the sense arguably is clearer. “Save you time” is probably the best way to think about the broad value proposition for communications networks of the future.
People will still want to communicate, share information, thoughts and ideas. But there will be a shift towards modes that allow richer conveyance of emotion and feelings, Holt suggests. That was touted as a key advantage of “telepresence” a decade ago.
In other words, connectivity is not going to be the reason businesses, organizations and people spend money on communication capabilities, in the sense of “people want holes, even when they buy shovels.”
That is akin to the past thinking we have used about the value of any computing or communications capability: it is the solution to a business or consumer problem, not an end in itself. People do not spend money on smartphones because they like carrying little computers in their purses and pockets.
The devices only enable the conversations they can have with people; the information they can discover immediately; the transactions they can conduct; the music and video they can watch. It is likely that sense which drives the Bell Labs notion of value driven by the ability to “create time.”
Nor would it be in keeping with the concept to pin all the coming changes on 5G or communications capabilities, but on a complex of changes anchored by artificial intelligence, which Bell Labs prefers to call “augmented intelligence.”
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