Next-Generation Connectivity

1
Next-generation
connectivity
Written by:
Commissioned by

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Is it really only just over ten
years since the iPhone was
launched? In that decade,
we’ve also had the advent
of 3G and 4G services. So,
in an astonishingly short
space of time, our ability to
communicate and access
information has changed
beyond all recognition.
Debates over who scored
the last French goal in the
1998 world cup final are
at best, nowadays, brief.
Looking to the next ten years, what’s clear is
that the tech-led future we have all been promised
is predicated on a new level of connectivity.
To deliver this golden era of superfast, always on,
ubiquitous connectivity and to avoid it becoming a
new dot-com bubble, we need to balance the need
for connectivity to become a utility—as plentiful and
inexpensive as water from the tap—with the sizeable
costs of building the infrastructure to deliver it.
Equally, unlike previous connectivity developments,
speed isn’t the whole story. It is all too easy to
get caught up with the hype of ever-increasing
download and upload speeds. In the future, just
as necessary (or maybe even more so), are the
developments in low-power networks for use
with the Internet of Things, where speed does
not count, but energy conservation does.
This report examines the potential for businesses
to adopt new and forward-looking business
models, and its findings are fascinating. It explores
implications including means of transport, such
as Mobility as a Service business models, to the
impact of enhanced connectivity on the energy
and property sectors, and asks where the future lies.
What is clear is that connectivity is evolving,
both in terms of how it is delivered and how
it is used. There is hardly a day that passes
without tales of some new data breach. As we
develop and build new business models, we must
not lose sight of the need to build in security.
We have helped our clients thrive using
the advances in connectivity over the
past decade. We look forward to another
decade of helping them succeed.
Foreword
We need
to balance
the need for
connectivity
to become
a utility with
the costs of
building the
infrastructure
to deliver it
“
“
Jon Fell, partner,
jon.fell@osborneclarke.com,
+44 20 7105 7436
Beatrice Delmas-Linel, partner
beatrice.delmas-linel@osborneclarke.com,
+33 1 84 82 46 42

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Executive
Summary
Internet connectivity has
proven to be one of the
most profound enablers of
social change and economic
growth of our time. Beginning
with fixed narrowband
internet connections and
moving through successive
generations of increasingly
pervasive and powerful
networks, connectivity has
come to underpin our working
and personal lives, empowering
businesses to operate more
efficiently and with wider
reach. In turn, connectivity
has sparked and fuelled
countless new industries,
products and services that
are coming to define our
modern age. Connectivity has
proven to be a vital ingredient
for business success.
Over the next five years, the next generation of
wired and wireless connectivity, characterised,
in particular, by (5G) fifth generation mobile
networks, full-fibre broadband and satellite
internet technology, is widely touted by industry
and observers for its potential to deliver a step
change in connectivity and its capabilities.
Enthusiasts for 5G—in truth a broad marketing
label for several mobile technologies that
will evolve, in time, into the next-generation
telecommunication standard—promise a tenfold
increase in wireless speeds that could, in some
cases, make wired infrastructure redundant.
But, critically, next-generation connectivity is
characterised not just by speed but by its other
attributes, such as greater capacity and low-
latency, effectively instantaneous connections
that promise to enable such applications as
driverless car technology, remote surgery and
sophisticated real-time drone management.
Aided, too, by large-scale satellite arrays,
ubiquitous connections between devices
anywhere in the world could deliver the
infrastructure that a truly global Internet of
Things requires. Such connectivity promises
to enable sensor-laden buildings and cities,
transform transport infrastructure, facilitate
asset tracking across the globe and extend
smart electricity grids to remote areas.
Equipped with next-generation connectivity,
business leaders have the opportunity to
rethink the ways they do business, to reduce
inefficiencies, reach new audiences, better serve
existing ones and open up new revenue streams.
They also face new competitive threats and risks.
The overall pace of change is blistering—
but the anticipation and adoption of next-
generation connectivity is affecting industries
in different ways and at different rates.
This research seeks to investigate this
change. It is based on a survey of 550 senior
executives from 11 countries at organisations
in five key business sectors: digital business;
energy and utilities; financial services; real
estate and infrastructure; and transport and
automotive. The key findings include:
• Capital-intensive, “physical” sectors such
as energy, real estate and transport have
been historically slower to adopt digital
connectivity to the same extent digital
industries have, but expect significant
advances from next-generation connectivity.
Respondents in these physical sectors are
most likely to predict greater interconnectivity
in their business over the next five years,
and more likely to have adopted formal
strategies around connectivity adoption.
• Nearly nine in ten respondents (87%) report
that connectivity will become more important
to their business in the next five years.
• Almost nine in ten respondents (87%)
regard 5G specifically as being “strategically
important” to their business over the next five
years, with the energy and transport sectors
being the most bullish in this respect.
• Next-generation connectivity is enabling new
technologies, including autonomous vehicles.
Dutch encouraged
It also paves the way for new business
models, such as a growing trend for
businesses to provide their products as a
service, and charge based on usage and
add-on services: a model made possible
through real-time remote connectivity.
• Security, data protection and privacy concerns
present notable barriers to the adoption of
greater connectivity. Two-thirds of survey
respondents (66%) say that security concerns
are very or extremely likely to lead their business
to avoid or withdraw from greater connectivity
in some cases, a sentiment particularly
pronounced in the energy and utilities sector.
• Businesses in the Netherlands and Germany
stand out as leading enthusiasts for next-
generation connectivity: Dutch respondents
were found to be much more likely to
regard various attributes of next-generation
connectivity as “extremely significant” for their
business (see chart 01). German respondents
are the most likely to have taken measures
to prepare for the adoption of next-generation
connectivity—adopting formal strategies and
building standalone divisions, in particular.
SecurityCapacityReliabilityCoverageSpeed
01_Various attributes of next-generation
connectivity respondents regard as “extremely
significant” to their business, by country

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1
Five generations
of connectivity
In this report, “next-generation connectivity”
refers to anticipated technological advances
such as 5G mobile networks, full-fibre
broadband and more usable and affordable
satellite internet access, which will offer
greater capacity and coverage for internet
connectivity, both fixed and mobile.
Since the first mobile networks were rolled
out in the early 1980s, each subsequent
generation of the technology that underpins
them has followed around a decade later.
Cellular data emerged with rudimentary
text messages carried by 2G networks in
1991, while 3G, which emerged in the early
2000s, brought faster data speeds, and a
true internet experience on mobile devices.
These were superseded by 4G networks
with data speeds theoretically five times
faster than 3G, enabling such applications
as mobile audio-visual streaming and
pervasive ecommerce. In addition to mobile
networks, other wireless connections have
emerged over this period including Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, and still-emerging low-power
networks and satellite systems.
The fifth generation of cellular network
technology is expected to outperform 4G in
terms of access speeds, latency, number of
connections and energy consumption. Most
experts agree that 5G will feature network
speeds at 20 gigabits per second (Gb/s) or
higher (compared with 15-29 Mb/s average
4G speeds typical in the UK, for instance)
and offer latency of around 1 millisecond
(compared with 50 milliseconds with 4G).
Throughout history, connectivity
and prosperity have been
intrinsically linked. From early road
systems and seaports, through
to railroads and telephone
lines, wherever infrastructure
has existed to connect people,
communities have thrived.
In recent decades, the internet has
supercharged global connectivity—and the
pace of its expansion has been extraordinary.
The internet has not just transformed the
way that people connect to each other, but
it has also quickly become vital to the way
that businesses organise themselves and sell
their products and services. It has presented
new business model possibilities, and opened
up new industries or upended existing ones,
as demonstrated by the likes of companies
from Spotify to Uber. Digital platforms are
now the basis for seven of the world’s ten
largest companies by market capitalisation.
Internet traffic volumes will continue to grow.
In part, this is because connectivity has
extended its reach to include a vast range
of physical objects that make up the fabric
of our daily lives. In the age of the Internet
of Things (IoT), connected buildings, vehicles
and infrastructure such as utilities networks
bristle with sensors, actuators, meters and other
devices that use connectivity to report on their
status and respond as data are collected.
Harnessing the benefits of next-generation
connectivity will require investment, strategic
initiatives, new partnerships, and redesigned
business processes and even business
models. This report seeks to understand
Introduction
Connectivity
now and next

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the true potential of next-generation
connectivity, its applications and their value,
and the extent to which businesses are
embracing the opportunities it affords.
Exploring these points prompts many
questions. If next-generation connectivity
will enable autonomous vehicles, what
action is the transport industry taking?
Is the data deluge that results from ever-
multiplying connected devices a headache
for businesses, or an opportunity? Do
security concerns put businesses off further
connecting physical and digital systems?
What would assuage those fears?
When asked how important connectivity is
today to the running of their business and the
provision of products and services, nine out
of ten executives agree that it is somewhat or
very important. This in itself isn’t so surprising.
Yet almost the same proportion (87%) believes
that connectivity will be more important to the
running of their business in the next five years.
However, this sentiment varies widely by industry,
with some, such as real estate and transport,
placing more value on future importance
than current importance (see chart 02).
02_Percentage of respondents in each industry who perceive connectivity as
somewhat or very important to their business currently, beside the number who
anticipate connectivity as being more important to their business in the next five years.
Digital business Data protection and privacy concerns
Energy and utilities Security concerns
Financial services Lack of talent and skills
Real estate and infrastructure Lack of talent and skills
Transport and automotive Security concerns
02.1_Barriers to adoption
Asked to rank their top three of nine possible barriers their organisation might
face with regard to next-generation connectivity, the barriers respondents
most commonly ranked first or second, in each industry, were as follows:
As this report shows, many business
leaders are already preparing for the
impact of next-generation connectivity.
More than a third of survey respondents
(34%) say they have formally assessed
the opportunities that lie before them,
and the same amount say that they have
adopted a formal strategy to prepare for
its adoption and made investments (34%
in each case). More than one in five (21%)
have redesigned business practices. There
is variation across sectors here too, with
energy companies and utilities the most
likely to have formally assessed opportunities
and transport companies the least.
This is not to say that greater adoption
of next-generation connectivity is without
challenges or risk, be it the trade-
offs of greater cost against marginal
improvements in connectivity, or cyber-
security concerns that stem from connecting
critical infrastructure or building more
complex systems. As this report discovers,
businesses in different industries see
different barriers and threats as much as
different opportunities (see chart 02.1).
believe that connectivity
will be more important to
the running of their business
in the next five years87%
Digital
businesses
Energy and
utilities
Financial
services
Real estate and
infrastructure
Transport and
automotive

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2
In a world where practically
any physical object can be
connected to the internet,
elements of both physical
and digital play a key role
in business processes.
Consumers have come to
expect that they can order
a book online using their
smartphone but pick it up
at a bricks-and-mortar
bookstore. The retailer can
check the inventory and locate
the item in their warehouse,
track the truck that delivers
it to the store and then alert
the customer of its availability.
In other words, connectivity
makes a huge amount of
digital information relating to
the physical availability and
location of an item available
to both buyer and seller.
A new normal
As the physical and digital worlds have
converged, this combination has rapidly
become the new normal in business.
When asked to what extent their business
relies on the combination of physical and
digital processes, the vast majority (95%)
of respondents agree that it does so if
not entirely then to a great extent.
This reliance is only set to grow. Almost
half of respondents (49%) expect to see
greater interconnectivity between the
physical and digital worlds in five years’
time and a further third expect it to be
significantly greater. The UK is the most
bullish in this respect, while China is the
least, according to our survey sample,
despite being a global leader in offline-online
business models already (see chart 03).

Connectivity
merges
physical
and digital
What applications
can we anticipate
from next-generation
connectivity?
Chinese respondents in our survey were
the least likely to anticipate greater
interconnectivity, with a third saying there
will be no change or that it will decrease.
But Chinese respondents are among the most
likely to report the importance of connectivity
currently, with half of all businesses reporting
connectivity as very important to the running
of their businesses (compared with 42%
on average). The country has emerged as
a global leader in mobile payments, and so-
called online-to-offline business models: those
that straddle the digital and physical world.
The IoT is a huge driver of this convergence.
Companies are already adding low-cost
electronic devices to previously unconnected
physical items to allow those items to
connect to the internet and communicate,
including products from domestic appliances
to goods in transit. This enables insights
03_Percentage of
respondents anticipating
greater interconnectivity
in the next five years
compared with respondents
anticipating no change
or less connectivity.1
1 Figures exclude “don’t know” responses
Connectivity
with Chinese
characteristics

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into their performance and location.
This new-found connectivity is digitally
transforming many businesses that have
previously been purely “physical” in nature.
Earlier this year, for example, Italian energy
giant Enel announced that its global thermal
generation division is working with General
Electric (GE) to monitor the performance
of assets in 14 thermal power plants
located in Europe and Latin America.
The data they generate will be collected in
GE’s Predix software and analysed in order to
detect any operational issues that may require
maintenance, with a view to reducing repair
costs, outages and overall revenue losses.
In the real-estate sector, meanwhile, French
facilities management company Sodexo
recently announced that it is working with
IBM to collect smart building data from a
wide range of client facilities, including offices,
hospitals, schools and factories. The idea is
to monitor air quality, temperature and lighting
more closely in these buildings, with a view
Over three-quarters (78%) of
respondents see particular opportunities
to be gained from augmented, virtual
and mixed reality, as mobile devices and
connected headsets are used to overlay
views of the physical world with data. For
example, prospective new tenants of an
office or residential building that is under
construction can use augmented reality
(AR) to inspect the site and see their
view of it overlaid with images of how
its architect envisages the final result.
There are ample opportunities in media,
publishing and entertainment, too. In our
survey, 44% of digital businesses regard
augmented, virtual and mixed reality
as a significant opportunity for their
business. When this sector was asked
which industry-specific applications
they regarded as the most significant
for their business, the enhanced ability
to deliver virtual and augmented reality
was the most selected response, ahead
of even real-time data analytics.
to improving the wellbeing and productivity
of occupants. IBM’s cloud-based Maximo
platform is providing Sodexo with real-time
data analysis across 2.5m assets in buildings
that the company manages worldwide.
It’s no surprise then that, when asked about
the opportunities that various connectivity-
dependent technology trends present over
the next five years, IoT stands out, and is
described as an opportunity by more than four
out of five (82%) respondents (see chart 04).
IoT-fuelled connectivity opens the doors
to a number of other key trends that in
turn present new opportunities. For a
start, IoT devices create huge volumes
of data that, once analysed, can provide
insights into business performance and
customer behaviour, and clues as to how
efficiencies might be achieved. They can
also help pinpoint likely sources of untapped
demand. Four out of five respondents say
they see data analytics as a source of new
opportunity between now and 2023.
Osborne Clarke comment:
Tom Harding, partner,
tom.harding
@osborneclarke.com,
+44 117 917 3060
Augmented reality:
a game changer
for business
Augmented reality (AR) provides
an interface that merges the
digital and physical and allows
vast amounts of data to be
translated into a real-world
environment. The current
approach of applying information
extracted from a computer to
a physical scenario is hugely
inefficient. The capacity of AR to
instead access and overlay data
in real time, which is then viewed
as part of the seen environment,
is a game changer for business
process and efficiency. Many
pilot AR projects are now
morphing into widespread
corporate adoption with huge
gains in productivity and quality.
With that comes a range of
legal issues from intellectual
property to privacy and health
and safety, but it’s this enterprise
application of AR where the
real change and investment will
take place and have the biggest
impact across all industries.
Connectivity is a vital component
that enables the virtual and
actual to merge in this way.
04_Asked to weigh opportunities against
threats, on balance respondents perceive
a range of technological trends as strong
opportunities for their business

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John Buyers, partner,
john.buyers@
osborneclarke.com,
+44 20 7105 7105
Smart streaming and
intelligent functioning
Connectivity is vital to the
operation of networked devices
that gather and process big
data and in turn power the
analytics of artificial intelligence.
“Always-on” devices connected via
the Internet of Things will require
levels of hyper-connectivity and
resilience in communications
infrastructure, which is capable of
supporting real-time interrogation,
uploading and downloading of
data. “Smart streaming”, as this
is sometimes called, is already
being considered by the EU in
the context of the standardisation
of future communications
infrastructure. This will enable
smart vehicles to communicate
with smart highways, allowing
for traffic management
and analytics data to be
exchanged between intelligent,
centralised traffic management
systems and other vehicles.
Furthermore, we are likely to
see intelligent functionality being
introduced to communications
networks themselves, either
directly or via third party “artificial
intelligence as a service” providers,
the trailblazer for which has been
Telefonica’s AURA system.
Meanwhile, 76% of respondents report
opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), a
term that is broadly used to define computer
systems that replicate a function of human
intelligence and today typically referring
to machine learning systems that can self-
improve their outputs by reference to inputted
data. Connectivity has been a key driver
in generating data from a wide range of
sensors, machines and devices, and next-
generation connectivity will ramp up the
potential for AI tools to respond immediately
to real-time data. AI will be key in transport
and logistics, for example, as it will enable
connected vehicles and robots to navigate
their surroundings autonomously, avoid
collisions and learn from errors in order
to refine future responses or actions.
Flemming Moos, partner
flemming.moos@
osborneclarke.com,
+49 40 55436 4052
Exploiting big data
The development of data-
driven business models is still
in its early stages, not least
due to insufficient connectivity.
The same applies to the legal
framework for the data age.
The exploitation of data for
commercial purposes harbours
numerous legal challenges:
data ownership; the specific
restrictions of the principle
of purpose limitation for the
use of personal data; and the
requirements for their sustainable
anonymisation are just three
examples of such open points.
Irrespective of legislative
activities across the globe, the
legal cornerstones for building
a data economy will remain
unclear for the foreseeable future.
Yet, the technical development
of more and more business-
relevant big data applications
will not wait. For businesses,
this means transitioning to the
data age on the basis of the
existing legal framework. Only
by designing data strategies and
data management frameworks
early will organisations benefit
from new forms of data
exploitation enabled by next-
generation connectivity.
This new-found
connectivity is
transforming
many businesses
that have
previously been
purely ‘physical’
in nature
“
“

16 17
3
Connecting ever more devices
and processes requires
infrastructure that can support
it. Taking advantage of new
technology trends, such as
increasingly sophisticated data
analytics, will require access
to new levels of connectivity for
businesses—and the demands
they place on that connectivity
will be more exacting.
Autonomous vehicles are a case in point.
Leaps forward in AI and cheaper sensors
have made self-driving cars a near-future
reality. But such technology will critically
depend on next-generation connectivity
for their advancement on the open road.
Autonomous vehicles must communicate
with cars, smart city infrastructure and remote
data centres in order to navigate roads safely
and avoid collisions. Much of the technology
for this exists, according to researchers from
a Chinese technology company, Huawei,
or soon will. However, “the most prominent
missing component is a high-reliability,
low-latency communications system,” the
researchers write.2
These high-speed, low-
latency links will be essential if autonomous
driving systems are to mimic or improve
on the split-second response times that
might be seen in a human driver.
Similarly, demand for AR and VR streaming
is pushing demand for connectivity that
can handle large amounts of data without
lag, whether for an entertainment business
serving consumer gamers, or a digital
healthcare business investigating the
viability of remote surgical operations.
For some, 5G mobile networks could
provide the answer. Standards for the fifth
generation of wireless technology will not
be finalised until the November 2019 World
Radiocommunications Conference, but the
claims being made for it are impressive:
lightning fast speeds, incredibly low
latency and the capacity to handle massive
numbers of connections simultaneously.
There is still much work to be done. In
particular, service providers will need to install
new antennae, base stations and fibre-optic
cables. This is costly work, so many may delay
until there is evidence of clear demand, and
that demand is likely to be led by consumer-
focused mobile broadband services rather
than business use cases. For that reason,
and because of the time it takes to build
the infrastructure, analysts at McKinsey, a
consultancy, reckon market trials and small-
Connectivity
pushes
boundaries
What are the true
capabilities of
next-generation
connectivity?
scale launches will continue, but large-scale
deployment of the technology “is unlikely
to take place until the early 2020s”.3
While they may have to wait, survey
respondents are thinking ahead. Nearly
nine in ten (87%) respondents agree that
5G will be strategically important to their
business by 2023. Respondents in Germany,
India, Italy and the US were most likely to
regard 5G as strategically important, and those
in France and the UK the least (see chart 05).
There will need to be a clear business case
before many companies make the shift to
5G, warns Guido Jouret, chief digital officer
at ABB, a Swiss-Swedish manufacturer of
robotics and industrial automation equipment.
Cost is a big issue. “For industrial companies,
at least initially, the costs associated with
that kind of high-performance, low-latency
connectivity might mean it does not make
sense simply to connect equipment on a
factory floor, because previous-generation
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
USUKSwedenSpainNetherlandsItalyIndiaGermanyFranceChinaBelgium
SomewhatVery
05_Respondents who assert that 5G
is somewhat or very strategically important
to their business
2
https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.017543
3
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/telecommunications/our-insights/are-you-ready-for-5g/

18 19
connectivity that exists today could be
perfectly adequate and appropriate,” he says.
Indeed, our survey findings confirm that
cost is a significant barrier. Nearly two-
thirds (65%) of executives surveyed
said cost concerns are likely to lead
their business to avoid or withdraw from
greater connectivity in some cases.
Into orbit
5G connectivity isn’t the only next-generation
connectivity technology promising new
business capabilities. For business operations
that span remote and hard-to-reach
locations, particularly those where harsh
environmental conditions prevail, satellite
connectivity is proving highly valuable.
Once prohibitively expensive for most everyday
applications, this technology is maturing and
extending to new business cases. At satellite
connectivity provider Inmarsat, Paul Gudonis,
president of the Inmarsat Enterprise division,
says that the kind of service-level agreements
(SLAs) that previously appealed principally to
companies in the maritime transport sector
are now finding favour elsewhere. SLAs,
associated with satellite adoption, guarantee
the level of quality of the service provided.
“Satellite connectivity services are typically
offered at higher SLAs, whilst cellular
operators offer lower SLAs to deliver
connectivity to a mass market,” he explains.
In other words, satellite ensures reliability
while cellular delivers capacity. “In the age
of IoT, many organisations are finding that
a mixture of the two can provide the best
trade-off between service level and cost.”
Inmarsat has partnered with mobile operators
including Vodafone and Jersey Telecom to
offer a mix of satellite and cellular services.
In transport, for example, many companies
find that a satellite provider can give them
a single point of service across multiple
regions, instead of forcing them to switch
between multiple operators when roaming,
says Mr Gudonis. This can be particularly
useful for achieving a joined-up view for
companies running networks of ships and
trucks. This oversight, and data gleaned
from it, allows businesses to operate much
more efficient logistics, and to spot and fix
problems more quickly.
In its niche of agriculture tech, start-up
CropX sees value in the combination
of cellular and satellite technology. The
company’s smart soil sensors are planted
in fields to communicate information about
soil quality–and what it needs for crops to
thrive–via a platform that farmers can access
from mobile devices. This mix of cellular and
satellite connectivity enables soil sensors
in even the most far-flung rural locations
to relay information, explains CropX’s CEO,
Tomer Tzach. Farmers are typically looking
for higher yields while looking to curb any
unnecessary costs around irrigation and
fertiliser. “In this way, they are spared from
having to visit sometimes very distant areas of
their farms to make an assessment,” he says.
No time to wait
What’s clear is that while companies are
alert to the potential of next-generation
connectivity, they are not waiting for new
standards to be ratified or for infrastructure
to be built. Instead, they are exploring the
uses of connectivity that are available
today. This may explain why 82% of
respondents agree that 5G, in particular,
is best regarded as an “evolution of
existing network technology, rather than
a significant step change in capabilities”.
It makes sense for companies to
focus on what they can do today, agrees
Stefano Gastaut, CEO of the global IoT
business at mobile operator Vodafone.
“We too see 5G as an evolution, certainly,
but it’s an important evolution that will
enable a couple of things. First, it will enable
an environment of hyper-connectivity, so
that companies can connect, concurrently, a
multitude of devices or a multitude of sensors.
Second, it will support very high performance,
so that this multitude of devices or sensors
can transfer a lot more data, faster. As with
all technologies, it’ll be a case of companies
trying to work out what’s possible once it’s
available, trying to figure out what makes
sense. Only then can new use cases emerge.”
Nearly two-thirds
of executives
surveyed said
cost concerns
are likely to lead
their business to
avoid or withdraw
from greater
connectivity
“
“
In some regions of the world, even quite
basic connectivity remains a challenge. At
Safexpress, an Indian business-to-business
logistics company based in New Delhi, chief
information officer Kapil Mahajan says that
much has already been achieved in terms of
greater visibility into company operations using
wired and wireless connections between the
company’s data centres, distribution hubs and
franchisee offices, along with barcode readers
and GPS inputs from 5,000-plus trucks.
“This has enabled us to create an IoT platform
that gives operational staff a screen-based
view of our operations—for example, how many
trucks will arrive at a hub in the next hour
and how many trucks are delayed,” he says.
But in a country as geographically diverse
as India, achieving that connectivity is
dependent on Safexpress engaging with a
large number of different providers and on
building in redundancy in case a particular
service goes down. “That can be both
complicated and costly,” says Mr Mahajan.
Survey results confirm that the opportunities
and challenges wrought by next-generation
connectivity, and perspectives on them,
vary country to country. More developed
countries are more likely to see connectivity
as currently important than less developed
countries, though just as likely to anticipate
future importance. In India, respondents are
highly likely to feel that 5G will be strategically
important, but they also rate all barriers to
adoption more highly than other countries,
with particular concerns around safety
and managing more complex systems.
Dutch and German businesses stand out
as leading enthusiasts for next-generation
connectivity: respondents from these countries
are the most likely to think that connectivity
is important to business and most positive
about a wide range of business applications.

20 21
4When asked what organisational capabilities
are needed for the successful adoption
of next-generation connectivity, a third of
respondents agree that technology innovation
will be key, and this is closely followed by
business model innovation, cited by 31%.
“Digital transformation is a boardroom issue
in pretty much every company worldwide right
now and many are addressing how connectivity
might change their engagement with the
customer and the way they develop their
products and services,” says Jeff Travers, head
of IoT at communications equipment company
Ericsson. “These conversations lead them very
quickly to ‘We must be more connected—and
so must our products.’”
Rethinking business models:
learning from leaders
In many product companies, greater connectivity
allows for promising new business models
based less on selling a piece of equipment or
hardware, but charging the customer based on
how they use it, through information gleaned
from monitoring, says Mr Travers. A good
example is Rolls-Royce, which increasingly
charges customers of its aircraft engines
based on miles flown. Ericsson is currently
working with a manufacturer of water pumps
Preparing
for the next
wave of
connectivity
What actions are
businesses taking?
The technological capabilities
of next-generation connectivity
prompt significant opportunities
for businesses, as tried-and-
tested business practices, and
even business models, are fit
for reimagining.
looking to charge its customers on a similar
basis, charging monthly usage fees rather
than a single, upfront purchase price. “That
changes the whole basis of a business—its
billing processes, its revenue model,” he says.
In industry terms, it’s no surprise that digital
businesses are ahead of the game in
embracing connectivity. Companies in this
sector, many of which will have been “born
digital”, are more likely to feel that connectivity
is currently very important to their business
(51%, compared with 42% across the survey
base) and are highly enthusiastic about its
impact on different aspects of their business.
Today, for companies in the digital business
and financial services sectors, in particular,
connectivity is vital, says William Newton of
WiredScore, the company behind a digital
connectivity rating scheme for commercial
office space called Wired Certification.
“Connectivity isn’t an area where companies
can compromise, especially in the era of
the cloud, where employees are reliant on
being able to download and upload essential
corporate data and information in ways they
never did before and at great speed,” he says.
Mr Newton’s company assigns a WiredScore
based on its review of the range of internet
service providers available to the tenants
of a building, its connection access points,
its capacity to support future equipment
installation and its infrastructure redundancy.
“As digital businesses continue to explore
newer technologies like AI, VR (virtual
reality) and AR, they’ll be increasingly reliant
on connectivity to support new business
models. That’s going to drive huge new
requirements,” Mr Newton predicts.
Newer digital businesses build in connectivity
right from the start, says Mr Gastaut at
Vodafone. “Look at a bike-sharing business,
Jeff Travers,
head of IoT, Ericsson
Digital
transformation
is a boardroom
issue in pretty
much every
company
worldwide
right now
“
“

22 23
Thomas Funke, partner,
thomas.funke
@osborneclarke.com,
+49 221 5108 4110
Car data essential
for competition
Data are key for automotive
business models of the future.
It will be essential for pointing
vehicles to garages for servicing
and repairs, tailoring motor
insurance premiums or even
targeting advertising to individual
motoring consumers. EU law
encourages interoperability and
requires vehicle manufacturers
to offer independents access
to vehicle data needed for
effective competition in servicing
and repair markets. The limits
of this statute are currently
being tested in the EU’s highest
court. Even beyond repair
and maintenance information,
antitrust law can require
incumbents to share essential
data with innovative businesses.
The legal framework needs to
encourage innovation, protect
competition, and balance these
with cyber-security concerns.
of the kind we see in many major cities now:
this is about technology underpinning the
original business model at a new business,
rather than an older business using technology
to change itself, which is an entirely different
and a much more complicated proposition.”
Connectivity is so integral to digital businesses
that there’s less room for more. Those we
surveyed in this sector were less likely to
predict greater interconnectivity over the next
five years than their counterparts in other
sectors. Meanwhile, companies that have
thus far been less reliant on interconnectivity
between the physical and digital worlds see big
changes ahead. Greater or significantly greater
interconnectivity is more commonly predicted
among respondents of “physical” industries—
such as real estate, energy and transport.
A mixed picture
In other sectors, the picture is more
confused. In the transport and automotive
industry, the survey shows that companies
are least likely to feel that connectivity is
currently important to their business and
also least likely to feel that it will become
much more important in five years’ time.4
But within this sector, there are great
variations. Today’s cars are essentially
travelling computers, boasting a wide range
of connections that draw in data from
onboard sensors, GPS units, “infotainment”
systems and mobile devices that monitor
its performance and condition.
These features have become critical
features for consumers, but also helped
automakers introduce new services. In the
EU, as of April 2018, connectivity has been
made compulsory for new cars by the eCall
automated emergency call requirements,
whereby location and impact sensor information
is automatically relayed to emergency services
in the event of a serious accident.
Reliable and widespread connectivity is
underpinning innovation around the idea
of “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS), the
move towards using transport as a service
rather than owning the mode of transport
yourself. In Helsinki, for example, residents
navigate and pay for travel, whether public
or private transport and including suburban
trains, ride-sharing services and city-centre
bikeshares, through one app, Whim. Asked
what they regarded as the most significant
applications driven in whole or in part by
next-generation connectivity in the next
five years, respondents in the transport and
automotive sector ranked MaaS most highly.
Case study:
The road ahead for First Bus
At bus company First Bus, which transports
1.6m bus passengers each day in the UK,
managing director Giles Fearnley concedes
that public transport has been slow to embrace
the business model transformation potential of
connectivity, but insists his company is quickly
catching up. “We’ve probably done seven to ten
years’ worth of work in the past two years.”
First Bus has introduced real-time journey
planning information with tracked vehicles, and
used the data to optimise timetables and routes.
But there is a great deal more business-model
transformation planned, says Mr Fearnley.
The company is exploring the idea of
providing on-demand shuttle services
on large housing estates, using taxis or
minibuses, so that passengers don’t have to
walk the “last mile” to and from their homes
and a bus stop. Trials of “My First Mile” are
already under way in Bristol. The business
is also involved in trials of driverless pods.
Driverless double-decker buses, heavily reliant
on digital connectivity and sophisticated artificial
intelligence systems, are still at least a decade off,
not least for safety reasons, Mr Fearnley believes.
But guided busways are already here, running
on dedicated concrete “tracks”, where the only
requirement for the bus driver is to accelerate and
brake, as seen with First Manchester’s recently
launched route between Leigh and Manchester.
“We’re in the business of moving large numbers
of people around efficiently on limited road space.
The ability to move large volumes of data around,
using connectivity, is already vital to that process
and is key to informing the kind of business
we will be in the future,” says Mr Fearnley.say that this is the case,
compared to a cross-
survey average of 42%
Transport and
automotive are
least likely to feel
that connectivity is
currently important
36%
4
See chart 02 on page nine
5654322238746234824897245
8745462840544722924984902
6592086454829047294898203
3647459204329858234923478
2376529024837527682354785
2364519843894239084258582Lorem ipsum

24 25
Xavier Pican, partner,
xavier.pican
@osborneclarke.com,
+33 1 84 8 24588
Smart grid technology
versus the regulated
energy sector
The adoption of connectivity
has been phenomenal over
the past few years. It is now
an integral part of most industry
business models, including
those, like energy, which
were previously considered
off limits due to security and
regulatory constraints. Smart
grids are a perfect illustration
of this difficult equilibrium.
For them to succeed, they
need to automatically and
autonomously adapt electricity
production by connecting
directly decentralised energy
producers with their consumers.
As we head towards a more
carbon conscious future, there
will be a need to balance
the regulatory position (in
relation to security and the
NIS Directive, for example)
with the need for interoperable
standards so that we make the
desired environmental gains.
Companies in the real estate and
infrastructure sector, meanwhile, are
among the most convinced that
connectivity will become more important to
their business in the next five years. Here,
next-generation connectivity could fuel a
“smart building” boom, based on sensors
that monitor conditions to improve office
management, boost energy efficiency and
increase employee health and wellbeing.
Much will depend on the owners of real estate
to procure vital infrastructure that is “smart”
enough to generate data. Take, for example,
Swiss company Schindler Group, which
provides buildings with elevators, escalators
and moving walkways. Schindler is working
with GE Digital to connect some 1m pieces
of its equipment to the internet, enabling
them to collect and relay performance
information, says Deborah Sherry, chief
commercial officer of GE Digital Europe.
Power outages in a building can negatively
impact that flow of data, says Ms Sherry,
but Schindler equips new elevators with a
so-called edge computing device (whereby
some data are processed locally before
communicating with the cloud) containing
a modem that typically uses 3G or 4G
connectivity to keep data flowing and raise
alarm calls. For infrastructure companies
like Schindler, the new business case
is based not on dispatching a service
engineer when something goes wrong,
says Ms Sherry, but “more on anticipating
a problem before it happens and getting
it fixed, so that people keep moving.”
Only connecting?
Businesses do see potential
roadblocks ahead in the pursuit
of greater connectivity. In fact, cost
and privacy concerns, each cited by
nearly a third (32%) of respondents,
as well as safety concerns around, for
example, the malfunction of systems
(31%), could lead some to avoid or
withdraw from the pursuit of greater
connectivity in some cases.
Greater connectivity leads to greater
complexity, too. A vital part of preparing
for next-generation connectivity will lie
in behind-the-scenes work to ensure
compatibility between systems so that
smart products and systems are able
to interconnect to deliver the
best outcomes for companies
and their customers.
Two-thirds of survey respondents
(66%) say that security concerns are
very or extremely likely to lead their
business to avoid or withdraw from
greater connectivity in some cases,
a sentiment particularly pronounced
in the energy and utilities sector.
Here, businesses are bullish about
the potential for next-generation
connectivity to fuel applications
including electric vehicle infrastructure
and intelligent balancing of distributed
networks. But a move away from
large, centralised energy production to
many small, flexible energy networks,
including domestic installations, and
the prevalence of web-connected
devices such as smart meters, brings
remarkable complexity and many points
of vulnerability. Opportunity for the
sector is not without risk.
Ashley Hurst, partner,
ashley.hurst
@osborneclarke.com,
+44 20 7105 7302
Cyber-security: greater
connectivity, more vulnerability
Internet connectivity brings a greater
opportunity for sophisticated criminals
and hostile state actors to hack
into systems and steal information
or simply cause disruption.
For energy and utility companies and
certain digital service providers, not only
do they have the protection of personal
data under the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) to consider,
but also the NIS Directive, which is
concerned with the protection and
maintenance of critical infrastructure.
Both carry stringent regulatory
notification regimes and fines of up to
€20m or 4% of global annual turnover.
The consequences of being attacked
and using out of date cyber-security
software can be severe. Notification
often leads to publicity and the potential
for significant reputational damage.
For businesses that rely heavily on the
internet, for example, in the retail and
financial services sectors, cyber-attacks
are an unavoidable risk. While counter
technical measures are improving,
there is a drive towards establishing
and practising incident response and
crisis management procedures: 72-
hour notification deadlines have put
these procedures into sharp focus.

26 27
The survey clearly suggests
that those companies that are
already the most reliant on
connectivity and recognise its
importance to different business
applications are also those best
positioned to capitalise on next-
generation connectivity.
These businesses are already highly
reliant on the digital tracking of physical
assets and expect to be more so in the
years ahead—and they are already laying
the groundwork for that reliance. They
are formally assessing opportunities, but
already have adoption strategies figured
out, putting them ahead of the curve.
At the same time, sectors where connectivity
has been less relevant or prevalent
historically are likely to see the greatest
transformation in the future. So what lessons
can “follower” companies learn from leaders?
Interviews conducted for this report and
survey results offer some indication:
Experiment: adopt a “fail fast” approach,
focused on identifying early wins where
connectivity can quickly be shown to increase
productivity, boost revenue or eliminate
inefficiencies. This may be a trial-and-error
process but will reap dividends in the longer term.
Invest in skills: by hiring new talent,
investing in skills and setting up digital
divisions that focus on the kinds of
experimentation discussed, companies
will breathe new life into their
business models and introduce fresh
thinking that can take them beyond
tried-and-tested approaches.
Build new partnerships: since next-
generation connectivity is expected to fuel
a reliance among businesses on third-
party data, serious conversations need to
be had between business leaders on how
they can open up key data systems to
each other, while preserving the integrity
of commercially sensitive data and the
confidentiality of customer information.
Tackle security concerns: connected
machines and devices can quickly become
targets for hackers. Yet some measures
that might protect these connected things
are routinely neglected, such as changing
default passwords and keeping on top
of software upgrades. Every company
that runs on connected machines, or
creates them for customers, needs a
disciplined approach to IoT security.
The lesson is clear. Next-generation
connectivity will be of little use to those
companies that have failed to take
advantage of today’s connectivity. Those
who truly understand its potential, by
contrast, have everything to gain.
Conclusion
Next-generation
connectivity is an
Economist Intelligence
Unit research programme,
commissioned by
Osborne Clarke. In this
report The Economist
Intelligence Unit looks at
businesses’ anticipation
of, readiness for and
adoption of next-generation
internet connectivity.
To do this, we surveyed 550 senior
executives with familiarity of their business’
connectivity strategies in April-May 2018.
The survey focused on executives from
five sectors: digital business; energy and
utilities; financial services; real estate
and infrastructure; and transport and
automotive. Half of the respondents
are either members of their companies’
boards or hold C-level positions, and,
furthermore, half are from organisations
with global annual revenue exceeding
US$500m. Respondents were drawn from
Belgium, China, France, Germany, India,
Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden,
the UK and the US, in equal numbers.
About this report
The Economist Intelligence Unit
supplemented survey results with in-depth
interviews. We would like to thank all
survey respondents, as well as the following
executives, for their time and insights:
• Giles Fearnley, managing director
First Bus, FirstGroup
• Stefano Gastaut, CEO, Vodafone IoT
• Paul Gudonis, president, Inmarsat
Enterprise, Inmarsat
• Guido Jouret, chief digital officer, ABB
• Kapil Mahajan, chief information
officer (CIO), Safexpress
• Soili Makinen, CIO, Cargotec
• William Newton, president and managing
director (EMEA), WiredScore
• Deborah Sherry, chief commercial
officer, GE Digital Europe
• Jeff Travers, head of IoT, Ericsson
• Tomer Tzach, CEO, CropX
This paper was written by Jessica Twentyman
and edited by Jeremy Kingsley.

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