After looming on the horizon for a number of years, the rollouts of 5G are now accelerating rapidly, and the technology is increasingly becoming available to businesses across Australia. The hype behind the technology is huge, but is it just that – hype – or is it going to deliver something meaningful to business?
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Perhaps the biggest proof that 5G is set to be something big is headlines like “5G will set fire to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Driven by automation, AI, the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and quantum computing, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is going to supercharge how businesses operate, with efficiencies and new ways of doing business that haven’t even been dreamed up yet. The reason that 5G is an important part of that conversation is that 5G provides a foundation that previous generations of network connectivity haven’t been able to.
Understanding 5G
There are three characteristics to 5G that underpin why it alone will be the platform for the Fourth Industrial Revolution:
5G promises speeds of as high as 1 Gbps in optimal conditions, and while “in-use” speeds will be significantly lower, the reality is that 5G at its slowest will still be the equivalent of current fixed wireless at its fastest, and a significant step up from what the previous generation of wireless broadband (4G) allowed. Greater speeds mean bigger files streamed or downloaded faster. It’s the most obvious benefit of 5G.
Latency is the real secret to 5G unlocking innovation that is otherwise not possible. Fixed wireless latency averages latency rates of between 50ms to 10ms. 4G latency is likewise typically around 50ms. 5G will get it down to around 1ms. Latency measures the delay for a packet of information to be sent across the network. What this means is that 5G will be the first Internet connection option that operates at effectively real-time, so any applications where genuine real-time responses are required (think self-driving cars that need to continually monitor road conditions) will finally be possible 5G.
5G can handle around one million connected devices per .38 square miles, while 4G could only handle around 2,000. 5G will facilitate IoT, in other words, where thousands of connected devices will be in simultaneous operation within an organisation.
How 5G Will Help Business
For businesses, 5G, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution that it will herald in, will offer a broad range of benefits back to the enterprise, including:
By leveraging a vast network of connected devices, enterprises will be able to drive deeper and more complex automation across their operation. Think about warehouses where inventory is monitored and replaced in real-time without the need for human oversight, or those self-driving vehicles that would enable 24/7 operation.
Edge computing is when a business has remote sites that are capable of their own real-time computing, without the need to send and receive all data from the cloud. Imagine a broadcasting company that deploys edge datacentres in key demographics and then, in real time, inserts highly-targeted ads into the feed, rather than relying on the broad targeting currently available. That will only be possible if the edge site is connected to the broader network in real time, to be able to effectively collaborate with it.
Currently, for high-performance computing, you need expensive, high-performance computers. Thanks to the speed and near-negligible latency of 5G, however, the bulk of the processing can be done in the cloud, meaning the on-premises devices can be much more modest in spec. This in turn means that businesses can save significantly on high-performance equipment.
Preparing For 5G
If you have decided that 5G is the right technology for your business, and that you want to be part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there are a couple of things that you should do first to prepare your IT environment for the opportunities that 5G will unlock. Firstly, make sure your systems are ready for 5G. Your working environment should be largely cloud-based (and security should be strengthened across the network) and, critically, your storage and data environments should be ready for an explosion in information. You’ll also want to make sure that your environment is highly scalable, as you’ll find that consumption will increase rapidly with 5G.
Secondly, you should train and prepare your people for the change. Any substantial change to a working environment can cause uncertainty and discomfort across the organisation, and as you start investing in automation, AI and other such “5G features,” people might be worried about their job security. Building a change management plan is essential for making the most of 5G.
5G promises enterprises of all sizes the opportunity to innovate and accelerate their businesses. Just as with each previous industrial revolution those that weren’t quick to move with the trends found their businesses highly disrupted and so, while 5G might still be a few years away from mainstream adoption currently, it would be a good idea to start to prepare for it now.
About the Author
Jacqui Coombe has been a prolific reader since childhood, and now channels her love of the written word into writing content on a range of topics from business, marketing and finance to travel and lifestyle. Jacqui is also a Principal Consultant specialising in Search + Content Marketing at international digital marketing agency Web Profits.
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