The 5G wave is fast approaching. If you’re not sure what that means, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Despite its ability to change how companies across industries do business, the next-generation cellular network still remains widely misunderstood.Most media coverage has focused on the technology’s ability to deliver faster speeds—around 20 times that of 4G.
Far greater than 4G, 5G’s bandwidth will provide the wide-scale ubiquitous coverage necessary for devices to interface with one another and their surroundings. And its low latency—the ability for the network to process data with short, almost non-existent lag time—could eliminate barriers for use cases like self-driving cars or virtual reality, which require near-instantaneous feedback.
Many small business owners still have challenges with getting affordable, consistent internet connectivity–an issue that is even greater for businesses in rural communities who have been left on the wrong side of the digital divide. “For small businesses in particular, one of the problems has been a lack of competitive options when it comes to connectivity,” says Anshel Sag, an industry analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.
On a practical level, this means many applications that work fine on 4G—such as video conferencing, smartphones, and augmented reality—will experience gradual improvements as 5G is added to the existing 4G network.5G does not operate at its best on a single spectrum. Instead, it can be deployed on three main layers, each with its own strengths, which complement one another.