5G will transform enterprise

SPONSORED BY Nokia

5G is set to be a huge­ly trans­for­ma­tive tech­nol­o­gy, fuelling far more inno­va­tion than the tran­si­tion from 3G to 4G. This is not just because of faster data speeds and bet­ter laten­cy, though con­sumers will always be a key dri­ver, but rather the oppor­tu­ni­ties it will pro­vide enter­pris­es to opti­mise their busi­ness process­es at large. From trans­porta­tion and util­i­ties to man­u­fac­tur­ing and even min­ing, every indus­try stands to ben­e­fit.

The tech­nol­o­gy is also vital to deliv­er­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals glob­al­ly. Data con­sump­tion on net­works is ris­ing by up 45 per cent annu­al­ly. Nokia is also see­ing unprece­dent­ed growth in laten­cy-sen­si­tive appli­ca­tions dur­ing busi­ness hours, includ­ing a 400 per cent increase in gam­ing. Keep­ing up with this on 4G would require far more spec­trum and ener­gy per giga­bit to trans­port the data.

As 5G is far more effi­cient, using spec­trum in a more effi­cient way, the same amount of data con­sump­tion con­sumes far less ener­gy on a 5G net­work. By con­sum­ing less ener­gy, 5G con­tributes to glob­al sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals.

“This is why gov­ern­ments as well as oper­a­tors are push­ing hard on 5G roll­out,” says Jan van Teter­ing, senior vice pres­i­dent, Europe, at Nokia, which has more than 1,300 indus­tri­al enter­prise cus­tomers, includ­ing around 130 pri­vate wire­less deploy­ments, while see­ing grow­ing demand for pri­vate 5G tri­als or col­lab­o­ra­tion.

“When we moved from 3G to 4G, it took 28 months between the first of the top-four US oper­a­tors launch­ing it and the last. With 5G, it took two months. 5G appli­ca­tions for enter­pris­es will have a major impact on how soci­eties oper­ate. In the past, net­works were a handy tool. In the future, every­thing we do will be built on the net­work, mak­ing it a neces­si­ty for our day-to-day oper­a­tions.

“With 5G, build­ing the ecosys­tem around enter­pris­es is far more impor­tant than it ever was with 4G, as it will help dri­ve busi­ness­es and soci­eties for­ward at unprece­dent­ed speed. It is the role of the tele­coms indus­try to make busi­ness­es and indus­try aware of these capa­bil­i­ties. Col­lab­o­ra­tion is vital, bring­ing togeth­er dif­fer­ent views and knowl­edge. We are work­ing with indus­try asso­ci­a­tions to dis­cuss what 5G can bring to them and with oth­er play­ers to push dif­fer­ent use-cas­es for­ward.”

Gov­ern­ments are rac­ing to take a lead in 5G. Though Europe is lag­ging behind the glob­al lead­ers, Amer­i­ca, Chi­na, Korea and Japan, it is still a top pri­or­i­ty and major advances are being made through­out Europe. While the tele­coms indus­try edu­cates, evan­ge­lis­es and proves the capa­bil­i­ties of 5G, one of the most impor­tant respon­si­bil­i­ties of gov­ern­ment is mak­ing sure peo­ple are not left behind as 5G becomes the lay­er on which soci­eties and economies are built.

The roll­out of major new tech­nol­o­gy typ­i­cal­ly starts in dense urban areas. It can then be easy for more rur­al areas to be over­looked because the busi­ness case is less attrac­tive, as was the case with both 3G, 4G and fibre. 5G’s influ­ence will be so large that it is imper­a­tive for gov­ern­ments to pre­vent a dig­i­tal divide from emerg­ing in the access that peo­ple have to pow­er­ful tech­nol­o­gy.

5G’s influ­ence will be so large that it is imper­a­tive for gov­ern­ments to pre­vent a dig­i­tal divide from emerg­ing in the access that peo­ple have to pow­er­ful tech­nol­o­gy

Par­tic­u­lar­ly in the post-COVID era, it will be huge­ly dam­ag­ing to the goal of achiev­ing eco­nom­ic par­i­ty across the coun­try if cer­tain areas have much bet­ter infra­struc­ture and tools for home work­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion. Gov­ern­ments must there­fore intro­duce pro­grammes that stim­u­late oper­a­tors to deploy 5G in less lucra­tive areas. This is vital as 5G push­es net­works to a lev­el beyond enter­tain­ment and com­mu­ni­ca­tions, sup­port­ing life-crit­i­cal, mis­sion-crit­i­cal appli­ca­tions such as in health­care, pow­er sta­tions and self-dri­ving cars.

“Trust is an extreme­ly impor­tant aspect,” says van Teter­ing. “To ensure this data is secure and not com­pro­mised on its way through the net­work, the end-to-end secu­ri­ty of the net­work, next to the end-to-end con­nec­tiv­i­ty, is cru­cial. Who are we trust­ing to build this end-to-end mis­sion-crit­i­cal net­work? It needs to be up and run­ning all the time.”

For more infor­ma­tion please vis­it nokia.com/networks/5g