The Innovation Waves in Mobile Telecommunication Industry

The modern mobile telecommunication industry is an active ecosystem, with a ten-year cycle time for the evolution wave from 1G to 5G. On investigating the mechanism using a systems thinking approach, we find that there are three innovation waves driving the evolution of the industry: A ten-year radical innovation wave for key technology research, standards definition, and the first product launch; followed by another ten years of incremental innovation to cover product refinement, which precedes the ten-year ecosystem innovation wave. The three innovation waves are driven by the three reinforced innovation feedback loops.<;/p> <;p>Now, 5G is nearing the end of the radical innovation wave, bringing us a connected intelligent future. Considering the long period of incremental innovation wave and ecosystem innovation wave associated with 5G, it is clear that 5G will be an enterprising journey with many challenges.