In an exclusive interview with Telecom Review, Masayuki Kayahara, NEC General Manager of Service Provider Solutions Department, delved into NEC’s innovative technological contributions, including 5G connectivity and automation across the globe.
With a rich history, NEC is renowned for its innovative and technological contributions. The company has developed several technologies and works with other businesses and institutions to promote research and development across a range of technological domains.
What is your current stand on providing 5G connectivity and automation across the globe?
NEC has been providing solutions and services for the telecom industry for more than a hundred years. We are providing the solution using our own products or our partner’s products. Especially in the 5G era, we need to provide the solutions for the telecom industry together with our partners. We embody the concept of being open and trusted. We have a lot of trusted partners across the globe that help us provide solutions. NEC is a global system integrator that plays a role in providing the right solution for the operator.
What is your view regarding the challenges in the 5G landscape? What actions are NEC taking to enable telecom companies to tackle these challenges?
The telecom industry is still facing challenges regarding 5G monetization. Telecom is already investing a lot of money in the 5G network. However, they still have not seen a good return on investment yet.
NEC is ready to support them to accelerate their monetization, especially regarding the three pillars.
The first pillar ensures that we are providing more advanced services,. We can offer consultation services to analyze the business situation or even do a business analysis, and ROI (return on investment) analysis, together with the operator.
The second pillar addresses our global footprint. NEC covers more than a hundred countries; we have a lot of use cases around the globe. We can offer use case’s that other operators have already deployed and giving results .
The third pillar addresses partnerships within our ecosystem. NEC has very strong partnerships with our key partners. With these key partners, we can provide further customized solutions to accelerate their monetization.
Could you outline your upcoming strategies and collaborations that align with your goal of delivering a variety of solutions within the telecommunications industry?
When we talk about 5G, or even beyond the 5G era, including 6G, despite the continual evolution of technology, incorporating advancements such as AI and LLM (large language models), we do believe technology should provide the proper solution for society. Due to these effective solutions, some people can experience the benefits associated with those technologies. There is a lot of fear and concern about AI or another technology taking over individual jobs, but it's not true. Technology should play a key role in supporting humans and society, contributing to a stable, safe, and stress-free society.
