Is Your Business Ready for 5G Technology?
Emerging new technologies bring new and exciting opportunities to business owners. Savvy leaders discover new ways for potential growth and increase revenue. As fast as the newer technology advances, challenges also arise. Businesses can adapt and put in place these new innovative technological advances to their current business models and system operations.
5G cellular network and connectivity technology is here. This opens the door to many questions for business owners. “Why should I switch or adapt to this new network technology and what benefits will it bring to my company?” “Is my business ready to support this technology, and if not, how do I prepare to adapt to a 5G network?”
To answer these questions, it is necessary to work collaboratively and bring together key personnel who are directly involved in understanding the company’s goals for the inclusion of this emerging technology and the need to undertake it.
New emerging telecommunication technology is changing our society, streamlining our daily routines not just at home, but in the workplace and ultimately altering how we conduct business.
The need for a faster network focuses on one common objective, to build positive experiences that ultimately delight users by offering better, more productive ways to accomplish tasks, and in the business world, to be able to offer superb customer satisfaction. 5G allows for richer and faster experiences, simultaneously meeting our society’s expectations and need for faster data speeds and supreme reliable service and connectivity.
So how does 5G compare to 4G LTE? 5G connectivity brings a new set of advantages over 4G LTE. A good example of how 5G differentiates from 4G is 5G’s ultimate high-speed, allowing people connected to its network, to download a high-definition 2- hour film in just 3.6 seconds (compared to about 6 minutes on 4G)¹.
5G’s high-speed connection came as a direct solution, to one of the most common problems when connecting a 4G saturated network and too many people connected to one band of the radio frequency spectrum. 4G fails at effectively handling heavy traffic, at higher speeds when devices are consuming an excessive amount of data, resulting in slower and dropped connections. 5G offers faster speeds primarily due to its spectrum available, and its use of more advanced radio technology. It delivers much lower latency than 4G, which will also enable new applications in the IoT (Internet of Things) space².
Is Your Business Ready for 5G?
It is important to note some preliminary preparations you will need to consider putting in place, so your business is ready to support 5G and all its benefits. Note that some of these preparations will include an intersection of cloud communications, networking, and planned infrastructure. How businesses handle data, is just as important as planning to strategically have the proper network in place to manage it.
Virtualization Readiness
When it comes to network and mobility, most businesses have already gone virtual at some capacity. You will need to determine the most efficient virtualization strategy for your business, by selecting the most suitable hardware, implementing the virtualization of the current network, and watching the performance of your network after installation. Proper virtualization will increase business efficiency by increasing your IT productivity by providing immediate access to application data and outline capability for transitioning to cloud computing.
Cloud Readiness
Have you already started the process of integrating cloud services into your business? The benefits of cloud solutions and technology cannot be ignored and it is an important part of the process to reap all the benefits 5G has to offer. Thanks to advancements in infrastructure and applications, information and data are now easily accessible from any geographic location, as well as on different devices such as smartphones and tablets. Secured access allows for authentication for each device accessing the network, no matter its location. Rather than having to spend money to constantly update out-of-date equipment, you can save money by relying on a cloud-based solution that does not need much on-site equipment.
Internet of Things Readiness
5G and IoT will supply new and exciting opportunities for businesses. What is IoT? The Internet of Things refers to the ever-growing network of physical objects that feature an IP address for Internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled devices and systems.³
What will it mean to be “IoT ready”? Your business will be to be able to take advantage of modern technologies thanks to its high-speed connectivity. Adopting IoT can help optimize and streamline your current business operations and administration.
The more time you spend preparing and researching IoT deployment, the less downtime you will experience. Proper network and security can become one primary challenge for businesses. The need to switch to more secure networks, while still using devices that are old and outdated, leaving businesses and their entire network vulnerable for possible cyber-attacks. Every business should incorporate and pay close attention to network security and monitoring as a way to be protected:
- Network Security: Staying ahead of cybersecurity threats can be challenging. It is essential for your business to have a network security system in place to protect data and sensitive information from unauthorized entities present on a current network as well as entities outside the network.
- Network Monitoring: It is the first step toward proactive monitoring and maintenance, while also improving reactive response times. Having an efficient remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform in place will improve productivity and increase reliability. IT automation and monitoring mean less time and money spent on IT management.
Summary
Business owners will always face challenges as modern technologies emerge in today’s world. How quickly a business adapts to these technologies, will make a significant impact on its current business model and most importantly, the efficiency level and prompt response on how a business switches to these technologies. 5G brings a tremendous opportunity for company growth and being receptive and proactive to its capabilities, will bring exciting potential and a vision for a successful future.
To learn more about how TelWare can help optimize your business and be prepared for 5G technology, contact us at 800.637.3148, email sales@telware.com—or visit our website at www.telware.com. TelWare is a five-star cloud phone provider, with unified voice, data, and video solutions.
Source Listed:
1. Chris Hoffman, “What is 5G, and How Fast will It Be?” How-to Geek, https://www.howtogeek.com/340002/what-is-5g-and-how-fast-will-it-be/
2. Simon Hill, “5G vs. LTE: What’s the difference, and does it matter?,” Digital Trends, https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/5g-vs-lte/
3. Internet of things, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things