With a greatly increased remote workforce, many of whom will not be returning to brick and mortar offices, the importance of 5G is not simple relegated to faster downloading of the newest cute cat video on your smart phone. The initial scramble for Managed IT services  and other IT support entities to establish secure and reliable networks for working from home may be over, but the need for fast remote networks is not.

Nearly all the major desktop, laptop and notebook manufacturers either have 5G capability built into their products or will offer that high-speed connectivity very soon. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Mac, and some lesser brands have 5G desktops on the shelves. 5G Laptops and Notebooks from Dell, Lenovo and Samsung are already offered, but Mac is slow to the game -  5G is available on Macbooks, for example, if your model has an 802.11 or 802.11a wireless network adapter, but a wider, general offering is still in the works.

5G Explained:
5G stands for the 5th Generation mobile network, which is the wireless standard worldwide, although some countries have either banned 5G or have yet to produce a reliable infrastructure for transmitting 5G (no worries, your 5G device will work at whichever speed is available). According to IT Chronicles  the reason why some countries, like Australia, India, and others have banned 5G, for the time being, is the technology’s reliance on China’s suspect Huawei ZTE Corporation. There are, however, other technologies from companies such as Ericsson that are coming available for more countries to eventually build sustainable 5G networks.

As with anything in business, time is money, and sheer speed saves a lot of time. Someone once said that America was built on the inch, the foot, and the yard, but these days, it’s built, or expands, on bandwidth. With the vast number of remote workers, this poses challenges for Managed IT services  or any type of IT Consulting service.

5G and IT Support

All of the best IT services, specifically Managed Services Providers, operate almost invisibly, unseen by the client who just wants the network to run smoothly and quickly. As IT support and services companies want to take advantage of the greatly increased speed of 5G network capabilities, not all facets of the ability to implement the technology are the responsibility of the IT support firm. Two of the main 5G challenges facing the IT Services Los Angeles community, as well as Small business IT support across the nation are:

1) Availability of higher spectrum bands
In terms of 5G, we are talking about the availability within the ‘Millimeter Wave Spectrum’ which is not available everywhere yet. 5G network operators face a bidding process to obtain these high speed capabilities and expand and implement 5G networks. While this resembles a ‘Wild West’ type scramble, the smart money is on the fact that if there is no 5G network available in your area now, there soon will be. Stay apprised by your IT service provider – undoubtedly they will already be on top of it.

2) Network structure modification
For your IT support and services team, your network infrastructure will most likely need to undergo modifications to handle 5G. Just as in cell phone service, your office and remote network depends on your network traffic, which falls under the guidelines of LTE (Long-Term Evolution), which is the standard for all types of wireless/mobile communications. This goes beyond the security capabilities of simple WiFi, and for businesses, the greater security is through Private LTE rather than Public. Applications such as 5G NR (New Radio) institutes more timing restraints than LTE, so it does constitutes something of a (solvable) puzzle for your IT service to weed through.

So, implementing 5G is not without its challenges for the IT Services Los Angeles Community, but nothing is insurmountable, even if you are stuck waiting a bit for 5G network availability. Patience -
it will happen.

5G Q & A

Q: Why is 5G so important?

A: Without being overly dramatic, the quantum leap that is 5G has the look of a technology that can literally change the world. Its lightning speed should create Trillions of more dollars and millions of jobs across the world. That, and the instant availability of cat videos…

Q: How does 5G affect me?

A: As a business, the number one plus is the sheer speed with which business can be pitched, transacted, expedited and delivered upon – but not delivery itself, of course – it’s not going to make trucks, trains and planes any faster. For a consumer it allows the user to have more reliably connected devices for more interaction with the world at an incredibly faster pace. Once we have geographically uniform 5G networks available, the speed may be dizzying.

Q: What is the difference between 4G and 5G?

A:  While speed is generally viewed as the number one advantage: 5G is about 100 times faster than 4G, that is not the only big plus. Going from 3G to 4G made cloud services usable on mobile phones, and 5G greatly ups that ante. You can use more devices, have much more capacity, and a remote iPhone employee will have incredibly enhanced access to the home business network. As for internet, how would it feel to never see that spinning ‘buffering’ wheel again?

Q: What are the pros and cons of having 5G?

A: There are many more pros than cons.

Pros:
1) Speed
2) Low latency (how quickly network devices respond to commands)
3) Capacity – the ability to handle vastly larger amounts of data
4) Advancements in AI – 5G will literally propel AI technology into a new world, and I don’t mean  Terminators – it will provide video conferencing with augmented or virtual reality. Machines that learn will learn at least 100 times faster. Automation was originally like an old Moped that you used to have to pedal to get going – with 5G, you just tell it and it goes… FAST.

Cons:
1) Limited availability
2) Security. See the next entry in this Q & A.

Q: Can 5G track you?

A:  Technically, yes. There are vulnerabilities within the technology that not only allow pirates to track you, but to launch attacks against you, such as spoofed emergency alerts. Consumers need to seek out safeguards from their service providers, but for business, a good IT support and services team will already have safeguards in place.

Q: Is 5G faster than WiFi?

A: By a country mile, but it isn’t really a comparison of 5G vs WiFi. 5G (5Ghz) propels WiFi much faster than 2.4Ghz, although the 2.4Ghz still has a longer range.