FEATURE : 5G
WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT 5G WILL HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT ON SOCIETY IN A WHOLE RANGE OF USE CASES AROUND SMART CITIES , MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS ( IOT ).
Network-as-a-Service
At its core , the 5G standard makes it easier for operators to start to segment their networks to essentially create private enterprise networks . In essence , this could mean that instead of a large enterprise with a distributed workforce , all connecting into its applications via disparate campus Wi-Fi , home networks and mobile networks from various providers – it could instead use a single , private ‘ sliced ’ mobile 5G network offering Wi-Fi like speeds – but accessible from anywhere . This enterprise Network-as-a-Service ( NaaS ) would be defined by the customer and offers advantages including per-user-per-month pricing , granular service levels , simplified endpoint management – and without needing the CAPEX to build out an extended corporate network – or the OPEX needed to maintain it .
This concept is a whole new category of product for the telecommunication operators and potentially provides a major benefit for a CIO that is struggling to deliver a guaranteed level of secure connectivity to a workforce that has been shifted by not just COVID , but by the ongoing trend towards mobile working . The NaaS model is particularly attractive to the largest organisations such as railways , utilities , government departments and others that have limited IT teams but need to support a large distributed workforce with as little interaction as possible .
Hard choices
Although this NaaS model is theoretically possible with 5G , there are still several hurdles to overcome . The most pressing is that 5G , nowadays , is still mostly a hybrid affair with the underlying infrastructure using the existing 4G networks .
5G works at a higher frequency in the spectrum than 4G , which is one of the reasons it can carry more information than its older sibling standard . However , these wavelengths don ’ t travel as far and have difficulty penetrating through objects .
This means to deliver the capacity , performance and nationwide coverage , 5G networks need a lot more cell sites and fibre backhaul . This process is ongoing but has been slowed down by COVID and sometimes hurt by the expensive spectrum auctions , which risk consuming much of the investment capacity needed for the network in administrative fees that will not deliver any long-term value and for sure , no innovation .
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