5G has long been touted as a game-changer technology. Industry watchers cite its potential to accelerate innovation – in particular enabling Internet of Things (IoT) applications to transform industries. So, why then are we still waiting for the 5G boom?
“While it’s been argued as a strategic direction for the last 5-10 years, very few organisations are properly leveraging 5G for any sort of business value,” explains Nathan Howe, GVP Innovation at Zscaler.
We’re already seeing 5G being put to work in a diverse range of use cases where Wi-Fi simply isn’t an option
The reason is that there are still several significant hurdles to overcome before 5G can be widely adopted. But despite this, 5G holds great potential for organisations, especially as they start to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
Indeed, we’re already seeing 5G being put to work in a diverse range of use cases where Wi-Fi simply isn’t an option – from trains and electric vehicle chargers to billboards and even GPS ankle trackers.
“There are outliers who are seeing the advantages of 5G for business value,” says Howe. “But it’s difficult to pinpoint that in all industries.” Here, we explore the three biggest obstacles that 5G currently faces and why it should still be on the radar of technology leaders.
Lack of 5G infrastructure
There are a couple of different factors impacting the build-out of 5G infrastructure. Telecoms operators (telcos) are working on allocating spectrum and pushing 5G to the business market. But the challenge they face is the cost of re-engineering their services.
“All versions of mobile connectivity up until 5G have been monolithic, where the telco owned, operated and controlled every part of the service. But with 5G’s distributed model, anyone can create services to complement telcos – such as the Zscaler service – or to compete,” says Howe.
The telcos are facing particular competition from the cloud giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, who fully understand the distributed services model – so telcos are understandably reluctant to relinquish control.
Inconsistent performance
5G radio deployments are still not as well rolled-out as 4G, so when 5G is not available, mobile devices failback to a 4G service. It is this lack of deployment – and subsequent failback – that can make 5G use inconsistent.
“Failing back to 4G implies a two-tier system, allowing for an impression that modern 5G is not consistent,” says Howe.
There is also a need to manage expectations around the service, particularly given the technological implications of radio signals.
“5G uses a much higher radio band than 4G, thus it has a shorter wavelength. While helpful for carrying traffic, it is harder to broadcast further. This means specific 5G infrastructure needs to be deployed, and more 5G radios than 4G – at least for public 5G use cases,” says Howe.
“These technical limits, while solvable, are increasing the feeling that 5G can be inconsistent.”
General scepticism
Another challenge is that 5G is so different from other technologies with which the enterprise is familiar. So while super-fast 5G has been touted for years as a replacement for Wi-Fi, it has yet to mount a credible challenge.
With a complex technology stack, it’s unlikely any enterprise is going to build and manage their own 5G set-up, especially as the IT department has a vastly different knowledge set than the one required for 5G. Instead they will buy it from a telco, or consume it as a managed service from a technology provider.
It’s also worth noting that the latest Wi-Fi standard, Wi-Fi 7, is expected to be a game changer in its own right, with its performance capabilities opening it up to markets and industries where Wi-Fi simply couldn’t be considered an option previously.
Another barrier to consider is that phones and laptops all have Wi-Fi cards – they don’t have 5G or radio embedded in them. There was hope that Apple would drive 5G-enabled devices with the Apple Vision Pro, but inconsistency in 5G deployment and uptake stood in the way.
The need for unified connectivity
As mentioned earlier, there are some visionary applications to which 5G is integral. China, for example, is leveraging 5G for a competitive advantage by building autonomous 5G-enabled shipping ports.
That’s because 5G has the potential to enable a world of new revenue generating applications for businesses. Looking to the future, AI will require not just faster speeds, but lower latency. “The more we see a need for high speed, low latency responsiveness, that’s where 5G will step up,” says Howe. “AI could be a driver for that – especially given we need to have responses in real time.”
But for now, organisations are still using 3G and 4G – and even 2G in about 30 countries globally. The goal, therefore, is to have unified connectivity where a device will always securely connect, whether over 5G, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or even satellite.
But 5G comes with new and heightened cybersecurity risks and attack surfaces. Here, Zscaler has adopted the unified connectivity model to make it simpler for organisations that want to work across the entirety of cellular spectrum.
“Zscaler looks at connectivity in the mobile world as being another set of important networks to ensure our customers can obtain security and protection. Zscaler’s services have been built to operate on any of the mobile ‘G’ network levels, allowing for a uniform experience,” says Howe.
And as Zscaler is already a distributed cloud security service, it pairs naturally with the distributed nature of 5G. “The way that we’ve built our services, organisations don’t have to build anything new for a 5G world – they can consume Zscaler today in whichever world they are in. There is a simple way to unify across all your ecosystems,” adds Howe.
Looking beyond its current challenges, 5G has untapped potential. The pioneers that have started leveraging the technology to gain a competitive advantage over their peers provide a powerful glimpse of what the future could look like for the enterprise.
For more information please visit www.zscaler.com
