Mobile industry makes ‘rapid’ progress towards 5G despite Covid-19

Created in partnership with A10 Networks, the Toward a more secure 5G world report says progress includes steady work toward virtualising core network functions and a re-examination of the security investments MSPs will need to protect their networks and customers. The study also suggests the Covid-19 outbreak is not expected to delay 5G deployments significantly. Revealing the extent of the growth, the study said the percentage of MSPs that say their companies are “moving rapidly towards commercial deployment” has increased significantly in the past year, climbing from 26% in a survey in early 2019 to 45% in the new survey. Yet in order to build out, the study found that the industry’s top 5G challenges were the heavy cost of build-outs (59%), security of networks (57%), the need for new technical skills (55%), and lack of 5G-enabled devices (42%).