Luke Coleman, CEO ATA Speech to GSMA Technology Summit: Australasia 2/12/2025

GSMA Technology Summit: Australasia

1:15-1:25, Tuesday 2 December 2025

Good afternoon everybody, and thanks to the GSMA for inviting me to speak today.

For any of you in the audience who don’t know me, I’m Luke Coleman and I’ve been at the Australian Telecommunications Alliance for just over a year now.

My background is in government policy and communications, not technology, so I’ll bring a slightly different perspective to the conversation today.

I must admit that I feel completely out of my depth on a panel surrounded by engineers and CTOs who actually understand how the technology works.

5G slicing? What do I know about 5G slicing? For a non-techy guy it sounds like using the thin edge of an iPhone Air to cut up a birthday cake.

But the more I read up on 5G slicing, the more I realised that this isn’t just a technology story.

It’s the beginning of a new way of thinking about what mobile networks can do, what markets they serve, what applications they’re used for.

In my non-techie mind, 5G slicing is the fork in the road for mobile connectivity, where mobile operators can truly differentiate between best-efforts consumer services and mission-critical Enterprise services.

It’s the technology that differentiates between the network that enables people to watch cat videos on the train, and the network that enables driverless trains.

It’s like setting up dedicated fast lanes on an eight-lane highway.

Before network slicing, everyone on the highway was able to use every lane, and you had cars, motorbikes, trucks, and buses all jostling for space in whatever lane they wanted.

Slicing creates dedicated lanes for priority traffic, so an Ambulance doesn’t get blocked by a delivery truck when it needs to get to its destination as quickly as possible and without lower-priority users taking up space on the road.

Each lane on the highway can be optimised for a dedicated purpose and priced accordingly.

Some users need the fastest speed, or the lowest latency, or the highest levels of security, and they’re willing to pay for it.

To go back to the cat video analogy, most consumers are quite happy with a best-efforts lane that allows them to watch cat videos while they’re on the train.

But the Government Department responsible for the safe operation of the driverless train is going to want guaranteed latency, guaranteed bandwidth, and rigorous service standards in any contract they enter with a telco.

Best efforts is not good enough for mission-critical applications.

As someone who’s spent the bulk of their career dealing with Government, I see 5G slicing as having implications way beyond the communications portfolio.

Where does 5G slicing fit into the Australian Government’s agenda?

In the Industry portfolio, the ‘Future made in Australia’ policy comes to mind.

This is a government initiative to boost Australia’s industrial and economic competitiveness, especially in the clean energy sector, by encouraging private investment through public funding and incentives.

Key areas include processing critical minerals, manufacturing green metals, and producing renewable energy.

It’s also designed to support for the development of a skilled workforce, particularly in STEM fields.

Smart manufacturing or ‘Industry 4.0’ environments need ultra-reliable, low-latency connectivity for automation and robotics.

We’ve already seen local trials of 5G slicing to support collaborative robots (cobots) performing repetitive tasks alongside humans.

In this case, the network slice ensured high uplink bandwidth for real-time control and monitoring, with guaranteed performance for critical operations even during network congestion.

From policy-makers perspective, if Australia is ever going to have any chance competing with manufacturing powerhouses like China, we have to rely heavily on automation and remote control, which 5G slicing is ideal for.

The Future Made in Australia policy also has a focus on processing critical minerals.

And the resources portfolio is another area where we should have a Minister cutting ribbons on 5G slicing projects on a regular basis.

Mining and resources operators need guaranteed bandwidths and low-latency connectivity for driverless trucks and automated machinery to keep mines humming.

Mines measure their productivity to the second – any delay to a driverless truck or train translates directly to how profitable the mine is.

And of course, safety is a huge factor as well. A millisecond of latency can mean the difference between an accident or a spotless safety record.

5G network slicing is a technology that the resources sector will benefit from enormously.

And speaking of safety, public safety is another standout area where 5G slicing can enable us to re-think our approach to government policy.

Rewind 10 years, I used to be an adviser in the Communications Minister’s office when we were wrestling with State governments and emergency service operators over Public Safety Mobile Broadband (PSMB).

The State emergency operators wanted their own 10MHz slice of dedicated spectrum to they could build their own dedicated PSMB network.

I remember at the time thinking, ‘How are you guys ever going to build a network as big as the mobile telcos, and how are you going to operate a network as well as the telcos?’

Well, here we are, 10 years later, and what’s changed?

The emergency service operators or ESOs are still calling for their own slice of dedicated spectrum, and they still want to build their own dedicated PSMB network.

But I’ll tell you what has changed – we now have some of the best 5G coverage in the world, and we have 5G slicing, which can provide emergency service operators with the dedicated spectrum that they need, when they need it, and where they need it – so they don’t need their own spectrum and their own network.

Network slicing will enable dedicated bandwidth to provide real-time video surveillance and mission-critical communications, ensuring emergency service operators aren’t jostling for capacity against consumer mobile users.

It’s not just as good as having dedicated spectrum – it’s better, because it removes the need for ESOs to invest billions in their own network.

Towers aren’t any cheaper to build or rent just because you’re only using 10MHz of spectrum.

RAN, fibre backhaul, core network equipment – none of that is any cheaper just because you’re only using 10MHz of spectrum.

Proportionally it’s way more expensive!

Broadcasting is another industry where 5G slicing could dramatically reduce costs and complexity.

Live broadcasts today typically require expensive custom equipment and long set-up times to provide coverage of major events.

But with 5G slicing, broadcasters can utilise existing 5G coverage to transmit live video feeds on dedicated spectrum, removing the need for outdoor broadcast vehicles and equipment to be set up for events that may only last a few hours.

5G slicing is like the mobile equivalent of an Enterprise fibre network.

The ability to deliver service level agreements with dedicated bandwidth and latency commitments on the customers own portion of spectrum is the mobile version of a fibre line direct to your business.

It’s where 5G goes from being a commoditised, generic, best-efforts service, to being a specialised, customisable, customer-specific service.

And we’re only just beginning to see how it’s going to change the way industries operate. Thank you.