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What Will The 5G-Enabled Enterprise Look Like?

T-Mobile for Business

The possibilities tied to 5G extend far beyond fast cellular service. In fact, unlike previous generations of mobile technology, most of the devices connected by 5G won’t be our phones or tablets. Instead, 5G will power a wide variety of sensors, cameras, display devices and even robots and drones.

With data speeds close to (or even exceeding) the speed of domestic fixed broadband, 5G could provide businesses with exciting capabilities, from controlling processes remotely, providing customers with immersive virtual reality experiences, empowering a truly untethered workforce and more. In a post-pandemic world, 5G will push us toward true enterprise digital transformation.

Here we’ll explore the cross-industry advantages of a 5G-enabled work environment.

How To Understand Spectrum

The key to 5G’s versatility? The wide range of spectrum that’s allocated for its use. These bands are in three distinct frequency ranges—each with its own strengths that power various enterprise 5G use cases.

The widest coverage is provided at low-band frequencies below 1 GHz, which can provide a strong signal indoors as well as outside, reaching across a wide radius of tens of miles from each cell site.

5G in mid-band frequencies (between 1 and 6 GHz) offers faster speeds, making it well suited for the bulk of 5G traffic in metropolitan areas or private campus networks. T-Mobile has access to considerable spectrum in this range: Its mid-band cells can transmit and receive high-capacity signals over fairly large areas, capable of providing download speeds around 115-223 Mbps.

High-band (mmWave) frequencies above 24 GHz offer the most bandwidth and therefore faster response times. However, the signal travels a relatively short distance and has limited penetration into buildings, requiring a high density of cell sites. This range, combined with the high capacity and low latency of high-band 5G, is ideal for high-density venues like sports stadiums, airports and shopping malls.

T-Mobile has become the first operator to launch standalone 5G that doesn’t rely on 4G infrastructure. This minimizes latency and enables network slicing, allowing the operator to fully optimize spectrum and network resources by virtually allocating parts of the network for various use cases. This key difference was demonstrated during the company’s standalone 5G launch drone show.

Because speed is high and latency is low with 5G, much of the processing power required for performing complex applications can be located in the cloud, meaning that local devices like drones can be kept relatively simple.

Connecting The Unconnected

Among many sophisticated 5G scenarios, there’s one that’s currently attracting plenty of attention: fixed wireless access (FWA), which uses 5G to replace a wired broadband connection (or serve as a backup).

Connecting via FWA is particularly useful for small and medium-sized businesses in places where high-speed fiber broadband is unavailable (rural communities, for example). FWA could also enable pop-up retail outlets or larger outdoor events in those less-connected locations.

Using Bandwidth In The Field

Enabled by mid-band spectrum, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) is arguably 5G’s most versatile service offering, supporting high-speed data over a wide coverage area while providing the capacity required in areas with high user volume.

And in the workplace, one of eMBB’s early applications could be high-definition real-time video communications, whether for training, presentations or conferences. The service could also provide both home-based and field-based workers with a better connection—allowing fast access to company databases via the cloud, for instance.

Looking ahead, eMBB has big potential as the go-to medium for a variety of immersive augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, potentially providing retail customers with an enhanced shopping experience or vastly improving employee training walk-throughs.

Across these scenarios, eMBB can balance performance to match a variety of user needs, whether that requires optimizing its low-latency service for high-density spaces or prioritizing reliable connections for high-mobility users.

Enhancing The 5G Factory

5G has dramatic potential in the manufacturing environment, too. The 5G-enabled factory—already a reality in some areas—continues to take shape as the era of Industry 4.0 develops.

What would a 5G-powered factory look like inside, exactly? It might lack human workers, for one. With improved enterprise connectivity, a smart factory could function without any personnel on-site, with operations controlled remotely over 5G.

This type of automation requires application of all three of 5G’s communication types—massive machine-type communication (mMTC), ultra-reliable, low-latency communications (URLLC) and eMBB—potentially used for video monitoring across an entire facility.

For monitoring factory processes, mMTC can connect sensors and tags on products moving throughout the factory. While this requires relatively low bandwidth, 5G can handle an impressive number of connections, and cloud processing can coordinate data and optimize the workflow with additional functions farther down the production line.

URLLC could also contribute to 5G factory transformation—enabling remote and automated control of time-critical advances like high-precision industrial robots or even their more collaborative counterparts, “cobots.” They’d contribute to the factory by either teaming up with humans in a shared space to tackle heavy tasks or operating independently in a more hazardous environment while mirroring a remote human operator’s movements.

Throughout the factory, parts could be checked into stock control and moved to the production line exactly when and where they’re required using 5G-connected automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) capable of coordinating with each other, production control and the dispatch department.

Keeping Tags On Assets

Outside the factory and office, 5G can continue to power the enterprise, potentially overseeing and optimizing fleet vehicles and transfer of goods right up to their final destination.

This could even include “last-mile” delivery via drone or delivery robot. In the Covid-19 era, this becomes extra helpful by eliminating the need for human contact and minimizing risks. In the case of fleet management, it also allows for improved vehicle safety and compliance.

Overall, the pace of enterprise digital transformation is picking up as we aim to reduce personnel density in response to Covid-19. 5G is capable of providing many of the answers to today’s challenges while pushing us into a transformed future of business. From enhancing the remote work experience to significantly boosting factory efficiency, the 5G-enabled enterprise is providing a promising blueprint for the future of work.

Trying to make sense of your 5G road map? See what some of today’s enterprise 5G leaders recommend to inform your path to adoption.