Gitex tech week opens doors to future with 5G, robotics, IoT
Exhibitors showcase emerging technologies
Dubai: More than 4,000 exhibitors and 750 start-ups from over 175 countries are converging on Dubai to take part in twin tech expos — Gitex Technology Week and Gitex Future Stars.
Taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from October 14-18 and open to business professionals only, the 38th edition of Gitex Technology Week focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies such as 5G, robotics, internet of things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality, all under the tagline ‘Experience Future Urbanism’.
The five-day was inaugurated by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, along with other dignitaries.
More than 200 government entities are taking part and out of that 80 per cent are from the UAE. They will be showcasing their latest technological know-how and live projects at their stands.
Etisalat is showcasing Pop.Up Next, a flying car and Rinspeed Oasis concept cars; Robomart, a self-driving grocery store experience, digital health and education experience; humanoid robots Sophia and Han; a robotic pharmacy experience, smart living and VR flying jet experience.
Video by Clint Egbert/Gulf News
Telecom operators — Etisalat and du — are also demonstrating 5G use cases covering health care, remote robotic surgery, AR/VR, IoT, autonomous technologies, cloud computing and more.
Previous generations of mobile technologies such as 3G and 4G were built for human interactions, but 5G will be able to allow industries to cut out cables, using cloud intelligence instead.
“5G is as big an innovation as electricity is to mankind. It’s going to change the world much more than what 3G and 4G did. 4G took us to a well-connected level with other people, but what 5G is going to do is connect people to everything,” said Sukhdev Singh, vice-president at market research and analysis services provider Kantar AMRB.
He said that the 5G will be a platform of the fourth industrial revolution. Where 4G has a latency of 15-20 millisecond, he said that 5G offers a latency of just one millisecond and will benefit verticals such as the autonomous vehicles, health care, virtual reality and augmented reality with high speed and low latency surpassing the 4G network.
In 5G, data speeds will be 10 to 100 times faster than 4G and can provide up to 10Gbps.