Despite some early 5G hurdles, including price premiums, limited access, and slowed deployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 5G services are now mainstream. All U.S. carriers are offering consumer 5G, and price premiums are being eliminated. While some 5G network rollouts were delayed, carriers moved forward as more consumers worked from home.
Smartphones and mobile internet access are not the only use cases for 5G. For a consumer, 4G LTE performance, data caps, and legacy device tolerance may hinder his 5G adoption. But at the same time, several key benefits of 5G could accelerate 5G enterprise use cases.
1. Fixed wireless
One of the top 5G enterprise use cases is fixed wireless. This means replacing broadband internet with a wireless connection. In retail stores, multi-tenancy situations, remote locations, and mobile environments, 5G improves connectivity between branch offices and headquarters. Additionally, with the deployment of fixed wireless access, the use of software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) is expected to increase significantly. As more companies establish work-from-home programs, fixed 5G will provide additional bandwidth and better quality of service for enterprise applications that need to cross over to cellular networks.
2. Health field
There are significant 5G use cases and opportunities in the healthcare sector. Many healthcare IT groups today work with surgical equipment that must be connected and air-gapped from the network for cybersecurity reasons. Mobile medical personnel need to have access to the scene of an accident, and critical patient diagnostic data needs to be transmitted between the ambulance and the emergency room. 5G is a great tool for these areas where ultra-low latency, security, and high bandwidth are all important. With contact tracing and mapping becoming more commonplace after the COVID-19 pandemic, 5G technology has the opportunity to play a role as a mobile contact tracer.
3. Sensor-based system
In manufacturing, building maintenance, agriculture, transportation, and wherever large numbers of sensors, connected devices, and IoT devices are deployed, 5G can send large amounts of telemetry and system information back to analytical and operational systems. It will be. Consider the 2013 Target data breach. A security breach at his third-party HVAC vendor compromised Target’s financial data. In a 5G world, vendors can manage sensor-based systems without relying on the host company’s network.
4. Network edge
As network edge computing continues to expand, 5G can provide failover connectivity for SD-WAN and primary connectivity for applications that need to run in remote locations. 5G’s ample bandwidth allows you to connect to headquarters and perform computing at the network edge, expanding your network footprint. 5G will play a critical role, especially in mobile and remote applications, as SD-WAN and work-from-home take the network edge in new directions.
5. Remote devices and augmented reality
5G’s 99.999% availability and massive bandwidth enable remote control of equipment, making precise control of remote devices more realistic. 5G will enable robotic devices to handle dangerous activities such as environmental cleanup and unexploded ordnance removal more safely and accurately from a distance. Although virtual reality may face bandwidth challenges with his 5G connections, 5G presents huge opportunities for augmented reality. Augmented reality requires overlaying smaller data sets and information onto real-time video for repair, service, or safety applications.
6. Automotive industry
Much has already been said about connected cars and the need for 5G based on the vast amount of telemetry they send. But as the world moves closer to semi- and fully autonomous vehicles, system-level decision-making requires real-time interactions and video, which is where low-latency 5G comes in. Much of the AI functionality in these vehicles will have to be delivered via 5G, as the computing is done in data centers rather than inside the vehicle.
7. Metropolitan areas and smart cities
Today’s metropolitan areas are more connected, and 5G use cases can help accelerate smart city ideas. Residential services such as street lights, traffic lights, and security can benefit from his 5G. Law enforcement agencies are already deploying 5G-based public safety applications. Surveillance cameras and network video recorders consume large amounts of bandwidth when supporting the high resolution needed to identify criminals. Additionally, city-wide monitors that triangulate gunshots require the lowest possible latency, an area where his 5G excels.
Overall, consumers and businesses can envision use cases for 5G. The consumer benefits are great, but the business benefits are much more important and will help accelerate his 5G adoption on the business side.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect changes in the 5G ecosystem.
