Imagine being in a team meeting where 3D holograms are sharing ideas on a digital whiteboard. Smart shelves detect when product inventory is low and automatically submit replacement orders. Using an augmented reality headset, you receive guided instructions to repair a malfunctioning machine regardless of the time of day. These capabilities and more may soon become a reality thanks to 5G, the fifth and most recent generation of the mobile network. While many sources have promoted the consumer benefits of 5G, this mobile network offers significant workplace benefits.
What Does 5G Mean?
What is 5G? When you hear about 5G wireless technology, it refers to the fifth and newest generation of the cellular wireless network. Previous generations include:
- First-generation (1G): Delivered analog voice communications in the 1980s.
- Second-generation (2G): Introduced digital voice, including Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), in the 1990s.
- Third-generation (3G): Brought mobile data in the early 2000s.
- Fourth-generation (4G LTE): Ushered in mobile broadband during the 2010 era.
These previous generations led to the current 5G network, a more unified and capable interface providing more connectivity than previous decades.
What Is 5G Technology?
In short, 5G technology is different from its predecessors because it will enable almost everyone and everything to connect, including devices, machines, and other objects. The wireless technology of 5G delivers higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds with more reliability, including increased availability, an enormous network capacity, and low latency. It will also offer more users a consistent experience and connect to new industries with improved efficiency and higher performance.
With negligible latency, high speeds, and superior reliability, 5G technology will bring the mobile ecosystem into new wireless realms with the extended capacity to deliver new services, enable next-generation user experiences, and empower new deployment models. It will impact all industries, making digitized logistics, precision agriculture, remote health care, safer transportation, and more a reality. This improved efficiency and higher performance will empower new user experiences while connecting new industries.
How Fast Is 5G Technology?
Users of 5G technology can expect to receive peak data rates of up to 20 Gbps to deliver peak data rates up to 20 Gbps according to IMT-2020 requirements. But 5G technology is more than how fast communications travel. It will also offer significantly lower latency for more immediate responses while providing a more reliable user experience overall, allowing consistently high data rates even as users move around.
Where Is 5G Available?
Did you know that 5G is already available and soon will be accessible to even more people? The rollout of 5G has already begun, and it will continue to reach more users over the next several years. While most consumers are currently limited to connecting through their smartphones and other mobile devices in select markets, 5G capabilities will continue developing and gaining momentum as they become more widely available.
Available in more than 60 countries, 5G continues to grow with significantly faster rollout and adoption than what we saw with 4G. Consumers are excited about the low latencies and high speeds. However, 5G technology goes beyond these benefits by providing massive Internet of things (IoT), mission-critical services, and enhanced mobile broadband. While it’s difficult to predict when 5G access will be available to everyone, we have seen significant momentum in 5G launches since its initial launch in 2019 and anticipate more countries to launch their 5G networks soon.
The Future of the Workplace Is Already Here
As more workplaces become increasingly remote and automated, 5G will play an essential role globally. With collaboration tools within the workplace in high demand, 5G can assist with making user experiences better with high speeds, faster downloading times, enhanced mobile broadband, and low latency. Offering higher speeds and excellent reliability, 5G will impact every industry.
Agriculture
Farmers can get real-time information from drones overhead, sensors in the ground, and other mechanisms on moisture and fertilization levels, enabling them to adjust as needed to ensure each crop achieves maximum yield.
Health Care
The ever-growing field of telemedicine will receive a significant boost from 5G. Health care providers will quickly send and receive large imaging files, while robotic and remote surgery options will also increase popularity. Finally, devices worn by patients will allow health care providers to remotely monitor patients’ mental, physical, and emotional states more easily.
Manufacturing
With the automation of routine tasks, businesses will see the efficiency of processes increase. Production facilities can plan machine maintenance based on data collected from sensors, and defects can be identified quickly, decreasing downtime due to equipment failure. Additionally, 5G augmented reality will allow remote maintenance opportunities, letting factories get back to production faster.
Retail
In terms of the retail industry, 5G technology will let online shoppers enter their weight and height into apps and virtually try on selections from their favorite retailers. Smart shelves in hardware stores and supermarkets will signal sensors when product inventory is low and automatically submit a request to the supply chain for a new shipment.
Transportation
Vehicles with 5G technology will communicate with infrastructures, including lift bridges via new wireless networks. Meanwhile, vehicle convoys will more closely share information regarding road conditions easily transmitted from a lead vehicle. This information, along with enhanced traffic flow data and smart traffic lights, will decrease congestion. Shipping will become more efficient as vehicles will reroute before getting stuck in traffic jams.
The 5G network will allow for ease of use with collaboration tools, foster more reliability for remote workers, and enable more users to connect to the remote workplace globally. The benefit of using 5G within the workplace is that it will allow more users, even those in more rural areas and places without broadband, to have the ability to tap into the workforce. This capability will expand the talent and recruiting pool because of the increased opportunities to connect. As a result, the workforce will continue to diversify, and 5G will help bridge the gaps among communities worldwide.
