Telcos must convince clients that they can be trusted and successful vendors for the 5G journey

WHILE telcos Singtel and StarHub launched or were close to launching standalone 5G networks in late May, Singapore still has a long way to go in pushing 5G adoption. (see amendment note)

In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to be brought on board the digital revolution. That's especially as the returns on 5G infrastructure are still expected to come from industry, despite a rush to monetise the consumer segment.

There's no denying the pent-up demand from enterprises that are prepared to double down on spending. Research and advisory company Gartner has projected that worldwide spending on information technology (IT) will grow 8.4 per cent to US$4.1 trillion in 2021, then another 5.5 per cent to US$4.3 trillion in 2022.