5G is here: Why service providers are turning to Oracle

Turn on your television, open any webpage, or scroll through your Twitter feed, and the message is clear: We’re officially living in the 5G era. It seems like everywhere you look there’s a reminder that you can now hold this long-awaited technology in the palm of your hands. And it’s true, 5G is here to stay - there are projected to be 1.7 billion 5G connections in use worldwide by 2025. However, behind the scenes, service providers are navigating a lengthy and extensive roadmap.

5G will change the way we work, learn, communicate, and interact with the world around us. Service providers must prepare for an entirely new business market where they no longer compete only on price and coverage for consumers, but increasingly on enhanced services and tailored experiences for enterprises and industry segments. Dense and wide-ranging, sophisticated 5G networks will need to support of billions of IoT connected devices with stringent security and reliability requirements. They’ll need scalable, flexible, cloud native network solutions and applications to adapt for a plethora of use cases, most of which have yet to even be created.

Can service providers meet 5G expectations?

Having built my career in the telecommunications industry, previously on the carrier side and now in software, I’ve watched 5G evolve from concept to global disruption. 5G was the goal; it wasn’t a product yet; there wasn’t a business pressure to deliver on investment by the end of the year. The pressure was namely when 5G was finally available, would it meet the high expectations that were being set in the marketplace?

For years, 5G has been an investment. The upfront cost to design, deploy, and go to market rapidly didn’t promise an immediate ROI. 5G isn’t about making a new phone faster, that won’t cut it. Where service providers are going to see the highest return lies in the promise of innovation for new service development.

That’s where we find ourselves today. Service providers are investing heavily in this next mobile generation, and now the question is how will they go to market with these new services through these existing sales channels? Moreover, how will they do it with these new services that are more complex and will demand more sophisticated networks?

The technology that’s helping us rethink the way we’ve run our businesses or build out new industries, the flexibility cloud-based networks will provide to bring these opportunities to market, and the business value they’ll generate is where the telecommunications market is going to see the most growth.

Oracle for Communications

Oracle strives to be the world’s most trusted partner for mission critical communications solutions, supporting the growing global demands to connect in new ways. Through our Communications team and a pan-Oracle initiative called Oracle Cloud for Telcos, Oracle is taking deep communications vertical experience, application breadth, and high-performance cloud software and infrastructure for IT, network, and enterprise workloads.  With Oracle, communications companies stay ahead of the market with secure networks and applications built for the cloud.  We’re helping global service providers to automate their networks, drive more personalized, data-driven customer experiences, and grow revenue with new IoT/ecosystem business models.

Oracle’s industry specific expertise and decades of cloud experience is helping operators not only scale and adapt for 5G services, but also monetize and fulfill new offerings rapidly, and help them migrate to the cloud. We’re helping providers navigate just about any type of business challenge, be it scaling their network, streamlining their supply chain operations, or even having a platform to manage talent recruitment. In 2021 alone, Oracle’s cloud native core powered DISH Wireless’ deployment of their 5G network - the first of its kind in the US – so it can support the rapid roll out of new industry and enterprise use cases. To monetize a variety of IoT offerings for wholesalers, enterprises, and partners, Vodafone Business is now using our billing and revenue management solutions. Running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Vodafone will be able to scale with its customer needs and further increase IT agility. Additionally, Dutch telecoms provider, KPN is using Oracle Fusion Applications for finance, supply chain management and human resources to help streamline the their business operations.

With Oracle’s full portfolio of products and services, we’re helping the largest and most sophisticated service providers across the globe bring services to market faster. I’m honored to be a part of the pivotal role Oracle will play in this next generation of mobile technology, enabling carriers to go beyond connectivity with 5G and cloud technology that will make a lasting business impact.