The Potential Short- and Long-Term Disruptions and Transformative Impacts of 5G and Beyond Wireless Networks: Lessons Learnt from the Development of a 5G Testbed Environment

The anticipated deployment cost of 5G communication networks in the UK is predicted to be in between £30bn- £50bn, whereas the current annual capital expenditure of the mobile network operators (MNOs) is £2.5bn. This prospect has vastly impacted and has become one of the major delaying factors for building the 5G physical infrastructure, whereas other areas of 5G developments are progressing at their speed. In this paper, an extensive study is conducted to explore the possibilities of reducing the 5G deployment cost and developing business models. This study suggests that the use of existing public infrastructure has a great potential to contribute to a reduction of about 40% to 60% in the anticipated cost. Also, the recent Ofcom initiative of location-based licensing of radio spectrum is reviewed. Our study suggests that simplification of infrastructure and spectrum will encourage the exponential growth of scenario-specific cellular networks and will potentially disrupt the current business models of telecommunication stakeholders -- specifically MNOs and TowerCos. Moreover, the dense network connectivity will encourage extensive data harvesting as a business opportunity and function within small and medium-sized enterprises as well as within large social networks. Consequently, the rise of new infrastructures and spectrum stakeholders is anticipated. This will fuel the development of a 5G data exchange ecosystem where data transactions are deemed to be high-value business commodities. Also, a data economy-oriented business model is proposed. The study found that with the potential commodification of data and data transactions along with the low-cost physical infrastructure and spectrum, the 5G network will introduce significant disruption in the Telco business ecosystem.