5G Networks in the Value Chain

As Information and Communication Technologies are evolving rapidly and at an exponential pace‚ businesses are forced to cope with the latest trends in innovation and to respond to emerging needs and opportunities. The constant digitization and process automation (digitalization) of supply chains call for the consideration of innovative services to sustain value chain efficiency and effectiveness. Given the approaching technological developments‚ the new network upgrades embodied in 5G networks raises several high expectations along the value chain. This paper recognizes the critical role of 5G telecommunications to support several value chain activities and create value propositions that would not be possible with existing network generations. To this end‚ Porter’s value chain model is applied and comprehensively discussed to highlight the potential areas that could be facilitated by 5G telecommunications.