From 3G to 5G. Logistics industry use-case Goose Q
Digitalization of the logistics industry is happening all around the world. It is especially interesting to see how it goes in China — enormous scale and affluent ecosystem supported by government authorities allow swift and thorough penetration of modern technologies and new business paradigms onto the market. In this short overview of adoption 3G and 4G technologies by the largest road data computation engine Goose Q we will try uncover the phenomena.
Goose Q is working for a niche market of Chinese truck and taxi drivers since 2009 when the company has developed its first automotive communication device AutoPhone. In 2015 the team has initiated cooperation with China Unicom, the 3rd largest in China telecommunication service provider, and together they have issued 3G SIM-card for automotive hardware such as smart mirrors and WEME communication devices.
Goose Q team has issued about 1.7 million 3G SIM-cards that allowed substantially speed up digitalization of the logistics industry and collection of road data from trucks and taxis in China. In 2018 China Unicom and Goose Q has signed another cooperation agreement, this time together with China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, to issue 4G Daluka SIM-card.
China Unicom has about 15% of the Chinese telecommunication market and is fighting with its two main rivals China Mobile (50% of the market) and China Telecom (35% of the market) by entering into niche markets. Besides Goose Q, China Unicom has also initiated cooperation with Tencent to issue SIM-card for gamers (王卡）and with Alibaba to issue SIM-card for Alibaba ecosystem apps (阿里宝卡). Thus Goose Q became the 3rd company China Unicom is cooperating with for niche markets SIM-cards leaving Baidu without its own SIM-card in the BAT trio.
4G standard allows much cheaper and faster traffic transmission so that now more people can afford to use traffic-intensive applications outside of Wi-Fi coverage zones, for an instance while driving. What is more important for logistics industry is that cheaper and faster traffic provides much more road data needed for future incremental (f.e. route optimization) and disruptive innovations (f.e. autonomous delivery) in the space.
“Today Internet companies are just 5 years old kids — IOT, blockchain, 5G, and AI will heavily change the landscape of digital economy.” — Jack Ma.
5G recently is becoming a buzz-word, but are there any benefits for the logistics industry? Goose Q CTO Tyreal Min is admitting that the difference between 4G and 5G standards in terms of speed and cost of traffic transmission is huge. However 5G is more suitable for high density cities and machine-to-machine communication processes rather than for connectivity in remote areas or highways where truck drivers usually are. Goose Q team will adopt the standard when China Unicom is ready to implement the technology, but so far 4G is more than enough to collect all necessary road data and to provide truck and taxi drivers with access to traffic-intensive applications.
Goose Q is the biggest in China road data computation engine with more than 10 years of development history. Goose Q’s main purpose is to provide a visual, verifiable, credible, traceable, anti-fraud, immutable data of the logistics industry in order to enhance its efficiency and transparency as well as to improve truck drivers’ financial and psychological wellbeing.
Webpage: http://www.gooseq.com
Telegram group: https://t.me/gooseQ
