IoT (Internet of Things) offers enterprises of all sizes and across all sectors a significant opportunity when paired with 5G. The combined data collection and automation provided by IoT, bandwidth, and lower latency allow for real-time decision making and response at scale and across the enterprise.
As with any transformational technology, IT leaders must strategically approach IoT and 5G to make the most opportunities-this is particularly true in a volatile economy where cost and benefit are carefully scrutinised, and organisations seek IT efficiencies. Five particularly compelling considerations in such an economy are:
AI was already finding its way into enterprises, but 5G super-charges deployments so companies can realise the full potential of AI. AI delivers operational efficiency by helping to reduce the task load on human (manual) labour. Additionally, AI opens up new business opportunities. What has traditionally made AI challenging is the amount of real-time data it needs to consume and generate. 5G's ability to deliver fast bandwidth with almost zero latency is the last key in unlocking AI's real-time capabilities.
For sectors where worker safety is a paramount consideration - i.e., mining, manufacturing, transport - 5G and IoT's real-time capabilities offer significant benefits. Robots with IoT-enabled capabilities undertake a more comprehensive range of activities, while sensors assist with monitoring environments or working conditions before flagging risks, often before the people on the ground even notice.
We already see this with the smart city concept, and the deployment of IoT sensors and devices to monitor everything from rubbish collection to water levels, weather conditions, and traffic light timings. IoT sensors create environments that operate at maximum efficiency, using 5G's high bandwidth capabilities to quickly collect and analyse massive amounts of data before providing actionable advice on conditions.
Businesses use the capabilities of IoT and 5G to enhance their product-delivery services. Retailers can provide rapid delivery and even collection services using IoT and 5G-driven improvements to logistics services. Many of the sharing economy applications combine IoT and mobile internet. Much of that was developed with 4G technology and would have been impossible with 3G. Product innovation will advance significantly with the next generational leap.
Combined with 5G, IoT provides a retail business with every customer's individual preferences and needs within its space, which allows them to extract the maximum value from the foot traffic. Picture this scenario: a customer walks into a retail store, and, accessing their loyalty card information, the store immediately knows what purchases and preferences the customer has. The consumer passes a screen that recognises them and displays highly targeted specials and sales items based on the loyalty card's information.
While the use cases are already appearing - and are already compelling to businesses across sectors - organisations must meet the challenges of deploying, managing, and commercialising IoT deployments. There are three particular challenges to commercialisation to be aware of:
The crossroads between competitive disruption and innovative leadership is an exciting place for 5G and IoT to converge. Technical efficiencies and risks are expected as they are with any new technology and this forms the crux of the cost/benefit breakdown for leveraging the technology. It can seem like a risk to deploy new technology in a volatile market, even when the use cases support it as highly efficient technology with a strong ROI. Organisations need to be aware that part of the market volatility comes from a need to disrupt or be disrupted. Those enterprises that don't embrace IoT and 5G enable themselves to find themselves left behind. Break through the mould, backed by an unbeatable 5G provider - SpinTel. No lock in contracts and unlimited data speak for themselves but if you'd like to chat with a SpinTel team member today, chat with us.
