If there’s any technology that has received hype in recent months, 5G connectivity has to be a contender for the most anticipated. The fifth generation of wireless connectivity is staged to benefit society and businesses alike. This is done through improved automation. Especially with the concurrent growth of the Internet of Things helping to develop the next iteration of the economy. Let’s consider how 5G is shaping up, and the impacts that it will likely have in the future.

How 5G Began the Year

While we’ve been hearing about the purported miracles that 5G will be capable of for some time now, it wasn’t until 2020 that we saw actual action taken by telecom providers. These 5G connections offered a few impactful benefits:

  1. Lower latency – 5G connectivity promises to basically eliminate the latency issues people have with their wireless cellular applications.
  2. Increased rates – With a 5G connection, faster wireless speeds allow data to be transmitted, providing users with content quicker.
  3. Enhanced capacity – As 5G grows in popularity, more devices will be able to be connected, meaning more can be done.

Of course, as with every other upgrade made to as significant an infrastructure as that which supports our cellular networks, things won’t change overnight. There will need to be some time spent, both on assembling the new infrastructures necessary and introducing devices that support 5G connectivity.

How Will 5G Connectivity Impact the Internet of Things?

Along with the development of 5G, the Internet of Things has seen stupendous growth. An estimated 26 billion IoT devices exist in 2020. Once the aforementioned improvements made with 5G connectivity become fully mainstream, businesses will have the option to do so much more involving the IoT. Let’s consider a few ways the IoT will likely see expanded usage:

1. Manufacturing

Perhaps no other industry will see gains of the same significance that manufacturers will. A low-latency, high-speed connection means that business can happen in virtual real time. This allows massive amounts of data to be processed and rendered to make decision-making simpler. Additionally, creates a more dynamic process and makes quality control, procurement, distribution, and customer relationship management all far better. This is because smart technology actively tracks and reports data at remarkable speed.

2. Supply chain

Traditionally, supply chain management has required a lot of oversight. IoT has been slowly deployed to make this process more efficient. Thus, 5G connectivity and issue reporting capabilities that today’s smart devices have will use this to improve businesses’ ability to manage their supply chain effectively.

3. Municipal

Municipal services are seeing greater amounts of automation thanks to the implementation of 5G. Therefore, it is becoming more likely that we will begin to see “smart cities” developed. These are cities where essential utilities such as water, sewer, traffic, and electricity are all managed through IoT devices. They modulate the need for changes to these systems with very little human oversight, potentially saving taxpayers considerable capital.

4. Autonomous vehicles

Self-driving cars and trucks are one of the more pronounced benefits that the IoT could offer via 5G connectivity. While a process like this takes a lot of data to implement safely, 5G and its high speeds and low latencies could finally make it practicable.

5. Healthcare

Finally, it’s been predicted that 5G will make healthcare far more efficient by better handling the enormous amount of data that is sent and received. Once the speeds attainable by this network are utilized en masse, patient data will be more readily available to the medical professionals who need it.

The intersection of 5G and the Internet of Things certainly seems to hold great promise, but time will only tell what ultimately comes of it. Whatever the future may have in store, you could rest confidently knowing that 4 Corner IT is taking care of your business’ technology. Reach out to us at (954) 474-2204 to discuss how your operations could be optimized.

One Response

  1. Hi Paula C, thanks for sharing an informative blog. In recent days 5G is accelerating a new wave of IoT applications as the Internet of Things (IoT) is the powerful enabling technology for a new generation. Your blog is informative, please do share more blogs as such.

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