Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:05):
Joining me now is Johannes Springer of Deutsche Telekom and he is also the Director General of the 5GAA. Johannes, thanks for talking with TelecomTV.

Johannes Springer, 5GAA (00:15):
Thank you.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:15):
I'd like to ask you about Deutsche Telekom's involvement in the connected mobility sector and why this is important to the telco.

Johannes Springer, 5GAA (00:27):
I would say it's at least twofold. One is of course we are selling connectivity into the car industry, so if every car is connected, then connectivity from mobile network operators like Deutsche Telekom is essential. So that is one selling proposition. But we are also operating the big IT platforms for connected cars where all these different connected car services are operated on. And this is something we are doing in T-Systems on a global basis. So not only in Europe, but also in other countries around the globe.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (01:02):
And why does Deutsche Telekom support the 5Gaa? How can 5GAA help yourself and other telcos?

Johannes Springer, 5GAA (01:11):
In many cases, 5G is something where the private customer has of course an important role to play. But more and more the business customers are playing an important role. So you need to understand the requirements of the business customers. And the automotive industry is an excellent vertical where you immediately understand the requirements if you talk with the relevant people. And that's exactly what 5G Automotive Association is about. You have all the car firms, you have the big first tier suppliers in here, you have the big chip set manufacturers, also antenna suppliers. So everything, every ingredient inside the car, in the car itself, the car producer itself is here. So very well to discuss with them and to understand their needs.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (01:58):
Now 5G brought with it a raft of improvements and advances from previous generations of cellular technology. How is this being used in the connected mobility and automotive sectors today? What are we seeing as a result of 5G today?

Johannes Springer, 5GAA (02:14):
4G is a great technology, so it delivers many of the things which is already used today in many of the cars. 5G even considers specific needs also from our business customers like automotive, quality of service, network, slicing, low latency stuff related to mobile edge computing. Now the upcoming technology integration of non-terrestrial network satellite communication, precise positioning. Another very important topic when it comes to automated driving functions. All these ingredients which are delivered by 5G and 5G capabilities are very relevant for the automotive industry. And we are working as Deutsche Telecom heavily on this stuff. And we want to bring this closer to the customer and want to understand how this can be integrated in the car.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (03:07):
And as we see the developments in the specifications of 5G, when we see more 5G standalone and 5G core. You mentioned network slicing there, there's a lot of iterations and improvements coming along. So if we look ahead five, six years, when 5G is more prevalent, what will happen to the connected mobility sector then? What new services and solutions might we be seeing?

Johannes Springer, 5GAA (03:36):
We see already today that more than thousand of different use cases are facilitating and using the mobile network connection. And the more the customer is expecting that the mobile network is used in the car, that the car is not connected. We have some of our customers, they say no connectivity is no option. So they say simply my car needs to be connected everywhere, any point in time and also in a reliable manner. So quality of service networks slicing to provide reliable communication channel to the vehicle is a key element. So that is so important that we figure out how this can be integrated and more widely. And this is also very important from a telco operator perspective. The car industry is selling their products in 180 plus countries around the globe. So it's a global industry. Normally we are more regionally based, but we need to offer our services on a global basis to fulfill the customer's needs.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (04:41):
And you mentioned improving quality of service, ubiquitous coverage for when you're driving in maybe remote areas. There's a number of challenges. There's a number of steps that we've got to continue to make as a telecoms industry in order to achieve these objectives that we're setting ourselves here. So what's your advice for the industry? What do we need to do? How should we come together to overcome some of these challenges?

Johannes Springer, 5GAA (05:07):
So first of all, we need to make the technology operational. 3GPP is doing a great job in terms of standardization, but we need to bring this technology pieces closer to the customer needs. So for instance, Camara and the GSMA Open Gateway Alliance, that is a great attempt to bring the stuff which is standardized by 3GPP closer to the customer. Again, it needs to be brought on a global basis to the customer. It'll not work out if it works only in several countries, but not in the other countries where cars are sold and where the cars are used. The same on non-terrestrial networks. If we are talking about ubiquitous coverage, the non-terrestrial networks will most likely provide a nice pattern to fill the gaps, which are still there. But of course, again, this needs to work on a global basis.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (06:04):
And a final question for you, as Deutsche Telekom and as also as the 5GAA, do you believe all parties in this expanded ecosystem, they all understand what's at stake, they all are aware of what's necessary and are all on board?

Johannes Springer, 5GAA (06:20):
No, that's also one of the core beliefs of 5G. We need to educate the ecosystem. We need to continuously improve the ecosystem. It's a step-by-step approach. It's not a revolution, it's always an evolution. And the 5G Automotive Association is also a great platform to inform and to educate each other. It's also an HR development approach, I can say. And that is also a benefit to be part of the 5GAA.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (06:48):
Great. Well, Johannes, thank you very much indeed for talking with us today. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much.