Most forward-facing companies are embracing 5G technology as it gets rolled out across the globe. The USA in particular is leading the way and this is no surprise given the business benefits it offers. 5G promises greater speeds, lower latency and greater capabilities, especially when integrating with Gen AI. With technology developing more use cases and creating more connections in both business and everyday life, many believe that 5G is essential to be able to keep up with network and business demands.
The challenge is, can we keep up with demands of 5G?
5G may be much better than 4G, but it’s also very different and much more complex. Companies are discovering that if they want to make use of all the 5G benefits, it’s not a simple upgrade. IT departments are being stretched because there is a shortage of people that have in-depth experience working with 5G. That’s to be expected with a technology that’s relatively new.
Already a number of cybersecurity risks have been identified including the number of IoT devices that can be liked to a network and the fact that many of these devices are not always manufactured with security in mind.
Think of an ultra-modern smart home where everything from the coffee machine through to the lights are connected to the same network. It may not seem to create a direct risk for a company. Unless the home is owned by a company director, who sometimes works from home and connects to company systems via their home network. Then, how those seemingly insignificant IoT devices are connected to the network makes a difference – and that takes expertise.
Apply that same situation to a college campus or conference hotel and the complexity increases ten-fold. How individual devices connect to the network and what systems are in place to check compatibility and security will determine how efficient and secure the user experience is. It takes 5G-specific knowledge of how to implement applications and services such as network slicing and correctly tying 5G edges to 5G cores.
On major infrastructure overhauls, this 5G-specific knowledge becomes even more important, impacting network architecture and engineering. Consider a large company with a hybrid remote work policy where employees are located over a large geographical area. How the network is set up and how it integrates with software that different departments use will impact how efficiently employees can carry out tasks.
Even how tech companies are developing their own products is impacted by 5G. In this, knowledge of 5G RAN, Open RAN and core platforms can influence and optimize product design. With a shortage of these specific skills, tech companies are having to improvise and learn as they go. Not a terrible approach, but self-learning does have its pitfalls. As much as technology has its advantages, companies should not overlook investing in the skills needed to develop and implement it. This especially true given the importance 5G holds in the future tech and communications.
