Some contestants even conceded that their products worked fine with existing 4G networks and Wi-fi, including the winner of the competition, a smart mobility start-up specialising in self-driving vehicles for open-air mining.

Such exchanges mirror the real life struggle to find cost-efficient, industrial-facing applications for 5G since the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) kick-started commercial 5G services nationwide in June 2019.

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5G has been billed as an enabling technology to underpin the digital transformation for scores of industries ranging from manufacturing, mining and energy to health care, education and public security. In March this year, 5G was even named an essential element of the new digital infrastructure by the Communist Party’s Politburo, the country’s top decision-making body.

However, due to challenges such as signal loss and inadequate coverage, the hype still does not match reality. Former Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei, known for his outspoken nature, warned in September that 5G technology was immature and suffered from high maintenance costs and lack of applications, making it difficult to justify the billions of yuan spent in initial investment.

Zhang Yunyong, a political adviser for the party and president of the China Unicom Research Institute, said in May that 10 million 5G base stations would be needed to achieve nationwide coverage, requiring about 2 trillion yuan (US$280 billion) in investment.

To that end, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – the three largest Chinese telecoms operators – have been scrambling to add more 5G base stations across the country, boosting the total to 680,000 by October.

More than 400 incentive policies for 5G adoption have been rolled out by local and central governments, according to Li Shan, director of the wireless application and industry research department at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), which is under the administration of MIIT.

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“Currently, there just aren’t that many use cases in industries,” said Paul Cheung, consulting leader of the Greater China technology, media and telecoms market segment at professional firm EY, although he believes 5G could be a promising technology for industries in the future.

Since the start of commercial 5G services in China, more than 800 enterprises have built private 5G networks according to EY data.

One potential early adopter of 5G for factories are robotics and automated guided vehicle (AGV) operations, although a 2019 report from IHS Markit did not “expect 5G to filter down to ubiquitous field use in manufacturing within the next 4 to 5 years, and a widespread 5G roll-out in industrial settings is not likely within the next 10 years.”

Unlike public 5G networks where base stations are shared, private installations are proprietary networks designed to ensure data security at higher network speeds. However, only large state-backed enterprises have the financial resources and need to deploy them, according to experts and industry insiders.

“Among these 800 enterprises, most deployed 5G private networks to connect machinery and harvest data to identify ways for productivity improvement,” Cheung said, adding that 5G features like ultra-reliable and low latency communication and enhanced mobile broadband have yet to be exploited by most industries.

One exception is augmented reality (AR), where low latency is crucial for a better user experience. Allen Wu, a former computer vision engineer at Baidu and co-founder of AR glasses company HiAR, has amassed a user base of nearly 1,000 industrial customers in sectors such as steel, car manufacturing and aerospace.

“5G still has latency problems at the moment although it’s a big improvement from 4G,” Wu said.

While 5G reduces latency to less than 10 milliseconds, required for mission critical applications like precision robotics in automated factories, Wu said this does not refer to end-to-end computational latency, which is considered a more meaningful barometer because it reflects the latency felt by end users

An example would be AR glasses sending factory data to the cloud, where it is processed and sent back to the user. Wu said current 5G networks are not fast enough to complete end-to-end computations in less than 30 milliseconds.

HiAR’s business took off after China fast-tracked 5G development and encouraged its use in private networks. However, the real driver was Covid-19 with many factories forced to speed up their digital transformation amid social-distancing and international travel bans.

“Our sales multiplied many times in the first half during the height of the pandemic compared to 2019,” Wu said.

With the coronavirus pandemic curtailing air travel, large manufacturing operations in China began using Wu’s AR solution for remote sales service and maintenance on their imported machinery. In cooperation with Huawei Technologies and China Mobile, the company’s AR glasses enabled experts in Germany and Austria to provide remote technical support for manufacturing equipment bought by Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel.

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Compared to teleconferencing via Room or other instant messaging apps, the binocular-style HiAR G200 glasses paired with its remote communication system HiLeia offered on-site workers a better way to interact with experts from afar.

When experts see real-time images on their computers, transmitted from on-site workers wearing AR glasses, they identify and tag a relevant part on the 2D image. HiLeia then renders the 2D information and projects it as a 3D virtual object on the workers’ AR glasses, providing them with a virtual view of the machinery installation process.

An added benefit is that it frees up workers’ hands which can be an important consideration in industrial applications, Wu said.

Although HiAR’s flagship G200 is 5G-compatible, the current version is only operating on 4G and Wi-fi because of the high cost of embedding the 5G technology, according to Wu. In cases where customers have a 5G base station on site, the signal is converted to Wi-fi so it can be received by the AR glasses.

“We are readying our new design for 5G compatible AR glasses,” Wu said. “But like many suppliers, we don’t want to rush into mass production of new 5G products because the ecosystem remains immature. Large-scale 5G adoption in control of manufacturing equipment has yet to become a reality.”