What Comes After 5G? Here's What Your Business Should Be Exploring Now

The protests. The vandalism of 5G infrastructure objects. The economic slowdown, if not recession, related to the Covid-19 pandemic. These are just some of the factors that were stagnating the global implementation of 5G. But, it looks like the process is finally accelerating now, in 2022.

More importantly, commercial 5G networks have been already deployed in over 60 countries worldwide (and still counting). The industry is already buzzing about the yet-to-adopt new connectivity tech, like 5G Advanced and 6G. Also, how they will be driving further digital transformation.

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Impact of 5G-advanced roll-out

Network slicing, edge computing and other culprits of 5G Advanced (5G v18 and higher) will inevitably have a huge impact on the digital advertising ecosystem.

For what it takes, the seamless URLLC communications will soon make the ultra HD video streaming in real time (e.g., using H.266 and DNN-based video coding) an absolute new norm. It will also certainly expand available web XR ad opportunities as well.

The wider deployment of 5G Advanced across urban areas will also fuel the release of a much bigger multitude of smart devices. Those beyond the conventional 5G-enabled smartphone models, whose install base is forecast to surpass three billion by 2027 (per Futuresource Consulting).

This will consequently extend the immersive advertising market niche, making it more competitive. Specifically in the shoppable XR vertical.

Related: The State of Immersive Advertising In 2022

New horizons to explore with 6G

The concept of 6G has been evolving around the convergence of communications and computing. Along with the natively-embedded AI tech, its primary impact on the digital advertising landscape will naturally imply deeper and more granular personalization and ubiquitous connectivity or reach. And certainly, the boost of metaverse advertising.

The development of the latter segment, in particular, is likely to be fueled by the introduction of new, avatar communications opportunities in the VR/AR/MR space. This will further blur the line between the customers' real and virtual lives. It will also lead to the opening of more AI-powered contextual targeting options in the metaverse, due to the scalable analytics.

In addition, given the natively-embedded AI/ML and the impeccable edge computing capabilities, chances are we'll be witnessing the rise of programmatic ad buying activities in the metaverse in the next few years.

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