When a company’s starting out, it’s fairly easy to stay light on your feet – especially since you’re not relying on quite as much IT infrastructure as companies who have been around longer or have a larger employee base.
The thing is, this agility can slowly fade. As you become more entrenched behind mission critical IT systems and large projects, your ability to work dynamically reduces – and before you know it, you’re in one place; with a limited ability to jump on opportunities that take you out of your HQ.
It doesn’t have to be this way though – and, as we power forward towards 5G business connectivity, there are ways to plan your IT future that’ll keep you as nimble as the day you started up.
We’ll take a look at the tech that’s out – but first, it’s useful to understand what’s brought us to the dawn of this 5G revolution…
From 1G To 5G
The route to the kind of wireless connectivity and speed we’re approaching today started way back in the ‘80s – before most of us had even dreamed of the business opportunities that internet could unlock.
1G analogue networks allowed voice to be carried over the cellular airwaves – and that was adequate until 2G networks came along in the ‘90s. 2G allowed data to be transmitted at the same time as voice – which allowed networks to carry information – like SMS, pager messages, and caller ID functions.
The world changed again when 3G became mainstream around the time everyone was worrying about the millennium bug. Digital cellular networks allowed us to pack huge amounts of information into our transmissions – meaning it was realistic to access the internet and email on our phones. When 4G came along, it allowed us to pack this information even more densely – so the possibility to streaming and accessing cloud-based services became real too.
So, What About Business Applications?
In truth, cellular connectivity has never been a mainstream option for businesses – simply because of the limited speeds involved. A wired connection still outstrips what’s possible from wireless – so it’s never been realistic for a business to survive long term on a wireless connection.
That said, the technology is there to make 4G somewhat workable as a solution for powering a network. With a specialist router, the data capabilities from multiple SIMs can be combined to make a 4G wide area network that’s cost effective to run – and capable of enterprise level speeds.
As a solution for smaller businesses, off-shoot offices, or as an emergency backup – 4G WAN is perfect – but it doesn’t quite deliver what’s needed to bring connectivity to heavy traffic networks. That said, all this is about the change.
Powering Business With 5G Routers
The same technology that’s used to bond 4G data connections together to form one robust connection will soon be able to carry 5G SIMs.
Even scaled back to the least optimistic predictions about 5G speed, the maths looks extremely promising when it comes to using 5G SIMs.
It’s not uncommon to find routers that are capable of combining the data from 20 or more SIMs to create one connection. Even if we say that 5G will only be 10x quicker than 4G, that means 20x 5G SIMs would be capable of creating one wireless connection that’s 200x faster than the same network built around 4G connections.
Along with this, multi-SIM routers have the added bonus of combining the connections from different carriers’ SIMs – so you’re creating a connection that has its own inbuilt failover protection should one provider’s connection run into problems.
What Does All This Mean To You?
Now we’ve explored the tech to some degree, we should turn our attention to what this means for startup businesses and companies who plan to harness 5G WAN to drive their company forward.
Realistically, you’re looking at removing a fairly sizeable anchor from your business – the wired internet circuit. Not only does this cement you to one location as your HQ, it’s also something that takes a very long time to establish and set up – meaning moving and adapting to the business landscape can be very difficult.
With 5G on your side, there’s a host of opportunities that you simply cannot access if you’re relying on a wired internet circuit.
Expos And Shows
Ever seen a great marketing opportunity but not been able to get the infrastructure you need to showcase your products/services to the best of your ability? With 5G, you can pick your network up and take it with you – setting up without compromising on the kind of services you can connect to.
Setting Up New Locations
For many businesses, the idea of setting up a new location just doesn’t make sense – and it’s usually down to how long and how labour intensive that setting up process would be.
With 5G, there’s no reason to think that your whole network couldn’t be configured off-site and put into place as soon as you get the keys and get yourself through the door – a big difference compared to the potential months you might have to wait to have a circuit installed.
Setting Up Your Initial Premises
Of course, it’s not just additional sites this quick provisioning applies to. For many startups, operating without a main office is normal for a number of years – and it’s often the upheaval needed to get into a bricks and mortar premises that stops businesses doing it. With 5G provisioning, your new office could be up and running in days rather than months.
Working With Employees Off Site
Study after study show the benefits that relate to having employees work from home – not least the fact that it unlocks an international talent-pool for you to choose from. With the right 5G routers, you could have a team of people sitting around the world – but with access to your network that would otherwise require them to be sitting next to your company’s servers in your central office location.
