ABI Research Coverage of InterDigital, Inc.

5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are the breakthrough technologies of this decade. The combination of these technologies will serve as a catalyst to many other emerging areas and will pave the way for a variety of new business opportunities in the consumer and enterprise segments, otherwise not possible with existing technologies.

5G is now a mainstream technology and a global success with nearly 1 billion subscribers already enjoying the high speeds the new generation offers. There are now hundreds of smartphones and devices that support 5G, hundreds of mobile operators have switched it on, and it is becoming available to the mainstream audience, not just high-tech premium subscribers. 5G is now giving us a glimpse of what future generations will bring and what new types of applications and use cases it will enable, in both consumer and enterprise domains.

To support sustainability efforts, the pace of 5G rollouts is important, as the climate crisis cannot be postponed. In the consumer space, mobile operators are deploying 5G and migrating subscribers to the new technology, but there may still be years until 5G replaces 4G and previous generations.

In order to realize 5G’s full potential, 5G deployment requires a more complex network with more powerful network elements, Internet of Thing (IoT) end nodes, and gateways. As compared to previous generations, 5G is expected to be flexible and agile, capable of supporting independent network slices for different applications. In addition, 5G is expected to have ubiquitous presence across different markets, so addressing energy consumption issue right at the onset of 5G deployment is a timely and effective way to make 5G as sustainable as possible.

Cloud gaming represents a first step in cloud infrastructure usage, with distributed and load-balanced compute in the future allowing more scalable power depending on user count and specific demands. There is even a sustainability component when considering local user hardware versus shared data center compute in terms of power draw and waste. This scalability is especially important in cloud gaming—by design, a unicast experience—as it will stress infrastructure and present a different content handling paradigm from traditional video streaming.

As the video market undergoes its current transformations, the arrival of new technologies—5G in particular—will usher in further changes that will see the market move from a two-screen paradigm (mobile and TV/CTV) to many displays. Within the home, the screen could extend to multiple devices including appliances, walls, windows, mirrors, and tables. Display technologies like flexible screens, transparent displays, and modular designs will fuel this expansion of screens within the home. In the public domain, digital signage along with new touchpoints like autonomous and public transportation will extend the screen beyond the home and workplace. Wearables, like smart glasses, will likely have the greatest impact by creating displays anywhere, making the screen virtually ubiquitous. The proliferation of physical displays will also occur over a long period of time due to cost and development/rollout of supporting technologies.