Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:05):
I am joined now by Graham Rushton, who's CTO Partner Markets with Vodafone. Graham, thanks very much for talking with TelecomTV. Can I ask, first of all, Vodafone was the first mobile network operator to be a member of 5GAA. So what's Vodafone's interest in the automotive and connected mobility sector?

Graham Rushton, Vodafone (00:25):
So the 5GAA, this consortium of like-minded people, both technology mobile operators, the purpose of it is really to drive a consensus of adoption, is to look at standards, it's to look at sensible use cases to move the industry forward. And it's only with that consensus of understanding whether we compete with each other in the real world or not. It's driving that overall view and overall strategic roadmap going forwards that's really going to move the industry.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:54):
So 5G at the moment we've about what, five years into the adoption of 5G networks got a way to go, but what does 5G bring to the sector today? What's possible with 5G and the automotive sector today?

Graham Rushton, Vodafone (01:10):
A difference, if we were to boil it down to a couple of key things. 5G has given us a new communication technology, which allows us to do a lot more, a lot faster. If I was to talk in non-technical terms, 4G is great, but with massive MIMO, we've beamforming on 5G. It allows us to really be able to generate that kind of data throughput to be able to generate the sort of low latency use cases that actually make it applicable to their V2X market.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (01:39):
And can we look at one of the areas you're working on? Because you're demoing here and you're showcasing step. Can you tell us more about step?

Graham Rushton, Vodafone (01:47):
Yeah, so STEP is a safe transport for Europe platform. The step sort of, if you were to look at it from a platform perspective, think of it as a postman. What we're trying to do is show the OEMs that we can take information from infrastructure providers from anywhere really and provide it through a single data source into a car at real time. Well, not real time, but obviously in low latency. And that makes it applicable for very many use cases such as detection. But the second key thing is that we're showing today the interoperability of different platforms. So if you were a Vodafone, you had a Vodafone app, you were a vulnerable road user on your bike and you're cycling along. What we're showing today in the demos is that you would still appear on the Consignia platform and likewise, the road users, the cyclists, the pedestrians who might have their information, their app will appear on our platform. Again, it's about this collaboration to drive the industry forward.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (02:44):
And if we look ahead five, six years or so, end of this decade, beginning of the next 5G becomes more established, it's more mature, it's more ubiquitous. What's the vision then? What can we do then that perhaps we are not able to do today?

Graham Rushton, Vodafone (03:01):
So look, I think everyone always talks about autonomous vehicles, that being the goal. But the near term reality is if we're able to deploy platforms of this type, we could massively improve road safety, we can reduce casualties. We are producing an ecosystem that is sustainable for the future, whether it's 5G or 6G. The technology that we're using and the environment and ecosystem we build will have a huge effect. And then obviously that's different services that consumers can buy, but it's that proliferation and also network APIs, so not just the V2X area, the ability to consume APIs on this ecosystem for all sorts of different use cases. That will be hopefully the future.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (03:47):
What is impressing me at the moment is there are a number of technologies coming together that have been incorporated and been developed and we're showcasing what they can do together. But to get to this future vision, what are the challenges that we as an industry still need to overcome?

Graham Rushton, Vodafone (04:01):
I think there's a number of challenges. A lot of change is driven by government regulation and trying to regulate an industry in this way is challenging, certainly for Europe. So what we're looking is to drive an adoption without regulation and then the challenges come down to, well, what's the business case? This costs money to adopt OEMs, infrastructure providers, everybody. And it's bringing the people together who previously are competitors to work together to design this model where there is a benefit predominantly for the consumer, but everybody still needs to benefit from that. And then the upside of it, of course is road safety. It's lower carbon emissions and everything. So without regulation, I think that's it. But the great thing is look at the 5GAA. We're all here. We've got car manufacturers, we've got the OEMs, we're all talking. And I do believe it will happen.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (04:53):
I really hope so too. Graham, thanks so much indeed for talking with us.

Graham Rushton, Vodafone (04:55):
Thank you very much.