Business Embraces 5G Promise of Speed and Safety

Sophia Belnap

No matter the type of business you are in, you have heard that 5G is coming. It’s happening so fast that you may have wondered how it will affect how you run your business. In a nutshell, 5G will tend to make data communications happen faster, reliably and more securely than current standards. The global 5G wireless network promises to transform the way businesses do everything from serving their customers to ordering their raw materials. Unfortunately, many business owners haven’t taken the time to explore how the new paradigms brought about by technology will impact the way they operate. Depending on what you do and what position you hold in the market, 5G could be an instant boon or a sudden wake-up call.

Reducing Lag Time

One of the enormous benefits of the coming wireless 5G network will be its ability to eliminate latency issues almost entirely. Latency occurs when there is a lag between when a signal is transmitted and received and processed. This delay causes some time-critical operations to be unsuitable for use over the network.

For example, an app that updates critical real-time information like stock prices would probably benefit from the elimination of latency because users would see information that was as accurate as possible. Developers will suddenly have vast arrays of new opportunities for high-speed, wireless communications-enabled projects that will take advantage of the mitigated delay times to perform their routines. These opportunities to disrupt current industries will cause many companies to rethink their business models. Built-in protection for companies of 5G is the flexibility it will create for companies to be able to reconfigure their entire operations on a dime. In these times of rapidly changing technology and overall uncertainty, the ability to become agile will largely determine who makes it in the new landscape.

Virtualizing 5G Networks

As the 5G core nears completion, the trend toward greater virtualization is becoming a significant factor in its development. For the most part, 4G networks evolved as hardware-centric webs where companies depended on electronics to configure and control transmission, switching and bandwidth adjustments made to allow for traffic loads. The trend of virtualization, running the core hardware tasks through software that logically configures the hardware into whatever the need calls for, entered the world through the development of cloud computing. Since virtualization is the primary way developers configure network hardware, it stands to reason that 5G development is firmly rooted in that model. More virtualization means more flexibility for disruptors and established players to mix it up and redefine the technological structure of the economy.

Locking the Data Down

The final piece of the puzzle, and one that is vital for its success, will be the 5G wireless networks’ ability to secure user data. Cybersecurity is a significant concern for business owners and their customers. Data thieves routinely steal usernames and passwords, credit card numbers and other personal information for sale on the black market.

Since cybersecurity is such a concern at the inception of 5G, wireless network designers have engineered security into its DNA. The extensive virtualization of network core functions reduces opportunities for data thieves to discover unused or idle ports of entry. Software configured network functions include removing these security holes by simply withdrawing them when not in use. Since the ports only exist in software and not in the physical world, the control program can switch them on or off as necessary. 

Data thieves will have difficulty finding entry points when all the doors and windows shuffle their positions routinely and possess the ability to appear when needed and vanish when not in use. In addition, the modular aspect of 5G will enable developers to ensure that users’ data are safe, secure and accessible. Capitalizing on these new capabilities means businesses will have to stay atop the latest technologies. By studying how 5G wireless network technology could disrupt their business model, many business owners will not only be able to weather the storm but possibly discover new lands in the process.