The demand for 5G solutions for the most diverse areas of the economy has the potential to generate R$ 101 billion over the next decade for Brazilian companies and startups or installed in Brazil, says a study presented this Thursday (19) by the Ministry of Economy.

The study also calculates the potential benefit of implementing 5G for the Brazilian economy, which could reach R$590 billion over the next decade. The account takes into account productivity increases and cost reductions from the so-called Industry 4.0.

5G is the fifth generation of mobile and internet networks, whose speed is hundreds of times higher than the current fourth generation. With its implementation, the expectation is that countless possibilities will be opened in areas such as artificial intelligence, data processing, augmented reality, logistics, among others.

"The new technology will serve as a lever for several sectors", said Daniella Marques, Secretary of Productivity and Competitiveness of the Ministry of Economy, when presenting the projections.

The report containing the projection for the software and applications market was produced by the consultancy Deloitte, with the participation of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

"We are behind the developed countries, but we see that we have good prospects for advancing 5G rapidly, especially in software and application development," said Marcia Ogawa, managing partner and head of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Area at Deloitte Brazil. 

In the document presented today, there are 96 public policy recommendations, on eight fronts, so that these potential for generating wealth are achieved, in addition to presenting the challenges for this to happen.

On the tax support side, for example, the report recommends the creation of special economic zones focused on 5G technology, tax exemptions for the purchase of equipment for emulating 5G networks and the offer of tax benefits for multinationals to implement strategic operations in the country, transmitting technology.

Among the main problems highlighted in the report is the low availability of resources to foster the national ecosystem around 5G, the lack of qualified labor (programmers and developers) and the insufficiency of environments that emulate 5G and allow the testing of solutions. 

"We are talking about a capital intensive industry, and obviously all this investment is not cheap," said Alberto Boaventura, senior strategy manager at Deloitte Brasil and one of those responsible for the report. "There is a need to be breaking down these barriers to financial and tax support," he added.