Islands of 5G mobile internet coverage to pilot and test possible network uses can be expected in 2019, Hakon Bruaset Kjol, the senior vice president, partner and head of external relations in Asia for the Telenor Group, told CNBC Wednesday. 5G is widely predicted to transform future technologies and industries, like manufacturing, with many countries preparing for rollouts within the next few years. Bruaset Kjol said people have a lot of high hopes for it but need to take a step back as it's not revolutionary tech. It is "evolutionary tech that is already out there," he told CNBC's Chery Kang at the East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China.

Application of 5G

Hakon Bruaset Kjol, Senior VP - Partner and External Relations Asia of Telenor Group, speaks during Fireside Chat on Day 2 of CNBC East Tech West at LN Garden Hotel Nansha Guangzhou on November 28, 2018 in Nansha, Guangzhou, China Dave Zhong/Getty Images for CNBC International

"What is going to be much more interesting when it comes to 5G is the use cases that 5G will support ... It will be more of a business-to-business type of network, rather than a consumer network to begin with," he explained. "In 2019, we expect that you will see islands of 5G coverage, which is going to be much more for piloting and testing. Bringing the network to a larger group of users so we can start to see what kind of services will actually go on top of this network," he said. The advantage of 5G is that it will provide greater bandwidth and speed compared to previous generations — and it has lower latency, which means it is suitable for heavy data transfers. Bruaset Kjol thinks the first cases we will see of 5G will predominantly be in smart cities and autonomous vehicles, "because autonomous vehicles need low latency to be safe," he explained. He also expects use cases of 5G to be rolled out within health care, "there is a lot of health care that requires remote access and it would be possible to do real transfers using this network in remote areas," he said. "5G will also be very important within industrial manufacturing, which requires robotics where you need productivity," he added.

5G and IOT

Bruaset Kjol was asked about the role 5G will play within the internet of things (IOT) sphere. This is the term used to describe a world in which devices — like home appliances — are connected to the internet and can be synced so users can control that device from an app whilst away from home. "5G will certainly be helpful but there are already solutions out there ... I do think you will see waste bins and fire alarms and all these types of electrical appliances will start to scale this year," he added. However, Bruaset Kjol doesn't think 5G will have a big impact on this area in 2019 but said beyond 2020 we should see more of an impact when large-scale 5G networks are deployed.

5G and cybersecurity