Eduard Martín (MWC Barcelona): “Having a fast and reliable network will be a differentiating element for the hotel property.”

Martín has worked for more than 25 years at the Municipal Institute of Computing of the Barcelona City Council. Later, he joined the international consultancy Sopra Steria where he held the position of director of Smart Cities and strategy for the public sector in Spain. In addition, he is Dean of the Illustrious College of Computer Engineering of Catalonia and president of the Association of ICT Professionals of Catalonia.

How do you assess the implementation of 5G in Spain in the short and medium term?

The year 2021 has been key in the deployment of 5G throughout the world. In the case of our country, public administrations have done their homework and have closed, among other initiatives, the auctions for radioelectric concessions. The auction for the 3.5 GHz licenses took place in February 2021. The 700 MHz one, in July 2021. The 26 GHz one is expected in 2022. With two of the main band frequencies assigned, the future of the fifth generation has thus passed a stage, and now it is necessary for the operators that have to provide universal connectivity to make it accessible to everyone. It is true that each of them, those who have spectrum, have different strategies, which we hope will be able to meet the needs of the entire country: from metropolitan areas to rural areas.

The concessions of licenses in the auctions and the conditions in which they were raised aim for 5G to be global in Spain by mid-2025. Global in the sense that there is a will to stop being something extraordinary to become the leading technology in the medium term.

After the arrival of this technology, will fibre networks and WiFi make sense?

In real life, collaboration between different types of connectivity will be necessary. The deployment of fibre optics is absolutely essential for the development of next-generation smart mobile networks, and therefore they are not very different technologies: they need to be complementary. Along with fibre and standard 3GPP networks, we will have WiFi networks, which not only will not diminish, but with their evolution to WiFi mesh and WiFi 6 will increase the offer, both domestic and industrial.

One cannot speak of competition: all the networks will be complementary and will be integrated into “cores” that will apply artificial intelligence to adapt and personalise services.

What do you consider the biggest challenge of 5G deployment?

The digital divide is one of our greatest challenges. Today we must urgently promote measures to enhance digital inclusion. Among them, facilitating large-scale collaboration of companies in the telecommunications sector, stimulating demand and digital transformation in industrial sectors and prioritising European leadership in digital services and investment in digital skills.

Some of the 5G innovations can help in this regard, either by reducing deployment and operation costs, reducing the deployment time of new services, or improving range and, therefore, reception, and also contributing to energy sustainability, with a decisive step forward.

What professional profiles do we need for the industry and society to face this challenge?

The new profiles will be found in the new technologies and infrastructures that support the main solutions for digital transformation, such as the Internet of things, Big Data, artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality. In fact, in 2021 the Ministry of Education created the Professional Training specialising in Video Game Development and Virtual Reality and another in the Implementation of 5G networks. The university offer is also adapting to these new needs.

5G opens up new opportunities for business development, but do you think it will widen the digital divide or can it help close it?

Historically, all the technologies that have changed the course of history (the printing press, the steam engine, electricity…) have offered great opportunities and have created great social gaps. In this sense, it is obvious that digitisation, with its exponential speed, tends to create differences. It would be great if humanity, after so many experiences, took this factor into account: each improvement creates opportunities, and also creates differences. The great opportunity that we must undoubtedly address, and which is based on our knowledge and experience, is to put in place the necessary means so that this gap (which is actually made up of multiple gaps) tends to be as small as possible, offering the opportunity to everyone to overcome it and revert to improving the quality of life of citizens.

There is a certain positive perspective: we are aware of this, and I believe that society as a whole is working to prevent a multiple gap that would surely be very negative for future prosperity.

Where will the first changes that 5G will bring be appreciated?

“5G is not 4G+1”. This phrase by Mario Campolargo, Director of NET Futures, DG CONNECT, of the European Commission, summarises the paradigm shift that 5G represents. It is not a mere performance improvement in the network, but rather the network becomes an active agent. The network not only transmits data from one place to another, but is active in its processing, its adaptability and the personalisation of content.

At first, we thought that the greatest impact would occur in the industrial sectors, but the evolution of the last five years shows that it will undoubtedly impact the health sector, Smart cities, mobility and the “entertainment” sector in the short term.

The pandemic also provides us with a new horizon where it has been proven that excellent connectivity can be a key element in the development of the so called rural areas, as opposed to metropolitan areas, providing the conditions for the economic development of traditional activities, and for the spread of activities that until today seemed typical of urban environments.

Therefore, during 2022 we will already see changes in the industrial, health and mobility sectors, but later we expect big changes in the sectors related to urban management and the provision of high bandwidth in “abandoned” areas.

Which sectors will benefit the most from 5G?

5G presents interesting opportunities for most companies. Like most disruptive changes, it will mean a big growth for some businesses and transformation for others. When this technology is widely used, its effect on industries will be transformative for 3 reasons:

• High bandwidth, increasing the capabilities of 4G wireless networks by 100 times (more speed, and more capacity)
• Hyper-connectivity: Simultaneous excellent connectivity capacity for more than 1,000,000 devices per square kilometre, compared to 1,000 concurrent devices with previous technologies
• Real time, or low latency. Similar to that obtained with wired networks. Real-time and ultra-low latency (less than 20 ms), provide conditions for real-time applications applied to immediate management environments.

All sectors may have benefits, but the industrial, socio-health, mobility and entertainment sectors seem to be in first place.

What opportunities does 5G technology bring to tourism and hotels?

Congratulations on the publication of the 5G Guide. It is a very useful tool for the hotel sector that I highly recommend downloading. As you mention in the guide, 5G is going to change how users perceive a service that they take for granted. Not only will they assume it as normal, but they will also expect the internet in hotels to go as fast and be as reliable as in their own homes. Having a fast and reliable network will be a differentiating element for the property.

Is the hotel sector ready for the arrival of this technology? What do you recommend in this regard?

Its arrival raises many questions and, in the hotel industry, the adaptation of accommodation infrastructures and the reorientation of investments are of particular concern. However, its implementation is only in the embryonic phase and there are other technologies, such as WiFi 6, which also make sense and are affordable in the short term and will also integrate perfectly with 5G.

Although the forecast is that important investments will be required by the properties, there are many advantages that could be obtained and not only that of offering a top quality service to guests, offering, for example, immersive environments in the rooms, real-time services on demand, or an advanced entertainment offer.

Regarding the opportunities that the new mobile generation represents, the study shows that, for a hotel, being prepared is not only an obligation, but also a need to be more competitive in an area where potential customers are going to demand more and more quality services related to 5G technology.