5G socio-economic impact

Session description:
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to create enormous economic and societal value through use cases such as robotic process automation and flexible human-machine collaboration. It will be underpinned by ultrafast and ultrareliable 5G. A switch to 5G promises to catalyst various societal benefits and economic growth, involving job creation, income growth/disparity, consumer cost/time savings, pollution/greenhouse gas reduction and quality-adjusted life years gained. As 5G rollouts are starting globally, we invite all WSIS participants to join a discussion about its impacts, and how to assure its most inclusive nature.

The World Economic Forum has made 5G a priority topic in their technology agenda creating a 5G-Next Generation Networks Programme that Nokia is actively supporting. One of its key objectives is to stimulate cross-industry and governmental coordination and to quantify the economic and social impact of 5G. During our WSIS workshop, participants will have a chance to learn more about the WEF programme and to discuss 5G developments. We will discuss what are the 5G use cases that will change the lives of millions.

Questions addressed during this workshop:

• Is there any evidence for the economic and social benefits of 5G-enabled transformation?
• How to make sure that 5G- associated economic and societal benefits reach all members of society in an inclusive and equitable fashion?
• How do you help unlock the potential of 5G?
• Do we anticipate any unintended consequences of 5G deployments (like deepening of the digital divide and environmental externalities) and if so how we should mitigate those?
• What are the implications for business leaders, governments and policy-makers?