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Christian Agadibe
SITA, leading IT provider for the air transport industry, has made six predictions about how ultra-fast 5G networks will bring major change for airports, airlines, and passengers.
With download speeds of up to 400MB per second, 5G will be a game-changer.
The potential for innovation is huge and airports, airlines, and passengers will feel the force of 5G in very different ways. SITA’s predictions are based on unique IT insights and emerging air transport industry technology trends.
They follow hot on the heels of 5G trials like the recent ones carried out by both London Gatwick Airport and Beijing’s new Daxing International Airport services which signpost our entry into a new era of ultra-connected air travel.
The adoption of 5G technology is gradually making its way into Africa as well. As of January 2020, commercial 5G networks have been deployed in Lesotho and South Africa. However, technology company,Ericsson predicts that 5G adoption will accelerate considerably on the continent. Over the next six years, Africa and the Middle East are expected to have the highest growth rate in 5G availability in the world.
Gilles Bloch-Morhange, VP, SITA Platform, said: “5G is already enhancing our existing applications at airports, for aircraft communications, airport operations, baggage management, and of course passenger processing. And it’s impossible to talk about 5G without discussing Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and the other applications it enables. We’re already using 4G for IoT applications for several applications around our biometric passenger processing solution, such as Smart Path and baggage management and the uptake of 5G will provide many more opportunities.”
According to CSS Insight data, there will be 340 million 5G connections globally by 2021 and a staggering 2.7 billion by 2025, mostly in developed markets. In money terms, in the aviation industry 5G amounted to just USD 0.2 billion in 2019 but is projected to reach USD 4.2 billion by 2026.
