5G technology: Key features and advantages

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G services on Saturday.

An official announcement states that the Prime Minister will introduce 5G in a few cities before gradually extending it over the entire nation over the following few years.  

Also read: 5G rollout in India: What its role is in Disaster Alert technology

5G technology: Key features and advantages

The benefits for customers and their mobile phones have been the focus of most conversations as operators roll out fifth-generation cellular networks, or 5G. However, businesses can also benefit greatly from the launch of fixed wireless 5G, which will eventually replace point-to-point broadband, as well as mobile 5G.

Let’s examine some of the characteristics and advantages of 5G for businesses in more detail.

Also read: 5G rollout in India: What are Jio, Airtel, Vodafone’s plans

Increased speed and bandwidth – Increased speed and bandwidth are the aspects of 5G that receive the most attention. 5G will deliver a 10 to 100 times improvement over the current 4G LTE technology with a data rate of up to 10 Gbps. Because WAN connections finally have enough capacity, cellular is now a feasible solution for branch office automation. The main value of 5G for enterprises may not be the bandwidth itself, but rather the pressure it puts on the market rates of incumbent WAN connectivity.

Low latency – The other major advantage of 5G for WAN usage is its low latency of about 5 milliseconds. Today, customers mostly use MPLS or dedicated lines for line-of-business applications that require low latency. Due to 5G’s low latency, organisations may be able to abandon some of their branch office MPLS infrastructure in favour of the more affordable and adaptable 5G connections to branches. This is especially true in contexts that are very far away, shared infrastructure, or retail.

Also read: 5G rollout in India: What are Jio, Airtel, Vodafone’s plans

Density – In the same physical space where 4G LTE now works, 5G density enables up to 100 times more connected devices while retaining 99.999% availability. While this density may aid mobile workforces in terms of business, the true benefit is the growth of the mobile consumer base. In comparison to traditional computer-based e-commerce and retail, mobile e-commerce is expanding more quickly. Because more people than ever shop online using mobile technologies, the total addressable market grows as density increases.

Reduction in power consumption – At the smartphone level, a 90% reduction in device power consumption results in modest power savings. However, the power savings could be significant from an infrastructure standpoint, particularly for IoT devices. Lower power overhead in the design and actual consumption result from combining IoT devices with cellular 5G connection. When operating solely on battery power, remote gadgets can be anticipated to survive substantially longer. For IoT-based sensor devices deployed in remote areas, some estimates even suggest that 10-year remote battery life may be feasible.

Also read: 5G vs 4G: What the key differences are

Security – Because Internet of Things (IoT) devices exist at the periphery of business networks, security is a constant concern. For designers, 5G offers more robust security than 4G LTE, including hardware security modules, key management services, over-the-air, secure elements, and other options. This will harden network endpoints and assist ensure that data carried over the 5G network is secure.

Despite these new 5G business features and advantages, there are also disadvantages to the wireless technology. One major drawback of 5G is that it has less antenna coverage than 4G networks, which require more antennas to provide the same amount of coverage. However, once 5G is widely available, its true business advantages will become clear.