The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Enabled by 5G? with Tim McDonald

Posted in Events  |  Tagged Events - Digital Economy, Little Nuggets of Tech and Telecom

Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at 12:00pm ET

We live in an era defined by speed and change. All of the new technologies that make life easier, safer, and healthier require permanent availability and incredible data transfer speeds to deliver real-time results. 5G at its peak could be instrumental for developing applications unlike anything that exists today outside a wired or laboratory environment. Beyond faster speeds and low latency, 5G standards have a much higher connection density, allowing networks to handle immense numbers of connected devices. Experts believe this massive connectivity among “things” and processes will be tantamount to a Fourth Industrial Revolution. This level of connectivity is expected to create a whole new crop of internet-connected industries where none existed before, with some referring to it as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Carolyn and Jen discussed this pending revolution with their “Little Nuggets of Tech and Telecom” guest, Tim McDonald, Partner at Pennant Investors. They explored how private networks, distributed data centers, and swarms of smart devices could fundamentally change industries like automotive, healthcare, education, agriculture, and transportation. They identified potential policy and regulatory obstacles that could prevent this bold, new future from becoming a reality. They discussed the opportunities for businesses and consumers should this future take hold sooner rather than later.

Little Nuggets of Tech and Telecom — A Lunch Series with Jen and Carolyn is a monthly lunch time discussion series featuring national, international, and local experts from business, law, policy, and economics. For 30 minutes each month, Jen and Carolyn will pose a “What If?” question to analyze different scenarios and factors impacting our sector as they and their guests challenge the status quo on hot topics like how to close the digital divide, the myths of spectrum sharing, and the emerging use cases for 5G that might drive a new wave of growth and innovation in the U.S.