It’s been on the cards for some time, but we can hear it in the distance now – 5G is rapidly approaching. For some in Australia, it’s already here!

The network is being readied, vendors are gearing up, mobile phones are incorporating 5G functionality and the evolution is now on our doorstep.

You may think, ‘ok, so mobile internet will be a bit faster, nothing to see here.’ But this would be a vast understatement.

5G technology’s going to really open-up avenues that weren’t previously possible and transform the way we live and do business in a plethora of meaningful ways.

“5G will have an impact similar to the introduction of electricity or the car, affecting entire economies and benefiting entire societies,” said Steve Mollenkopf (Chief Executive of Qualcomm).

5G Timeline – The big ‘when’

For Australian businesses, you should start gearing up now. The 5G rollout had already begun in some areas across our major cities.

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are the initial targets and major CBD and metropolitan areas are already covered. There are major roll out plans in full swing for the rest of the country.

If you want to check on the Telstra 5G coverage area maps see here. For the Optus 5G coverage area maps, see here.

Several flagship tech companies have already made 5G smartphones and if you’re in the market for a new one, be sure it’s 5G enabled, lest you be left in the rear-view mirror.

Meaningful difference between 4G and 5G

If you thought this was an iterative change in capacity – you’re wrong.

This is a massive leap with equal implications for the way we run our businesses and what they do.

This is a very significant upgrade from 4G and 4G LTE – you’ll feel the difference with a focus on eliminating latency (that pause you get before your download begins).

We’re talking something in the range of 20 times the speed of 4G networks with maximum predictions setting a peak speed of 20 Gb/s, while 4G is only 1 Gb/s.

The remote business advantages

In a twist of fate, 5G has come at exactly the right time to heavily bolster the remote working community.

We don’t have to tell you how swiftly remote work has swelled, you’re probably a key member, alongside most of your friends and family.

Massively boosted speeds and efficiency mean that remote and mobile work has just been supercharged. You can work with high quality video streaming while simultaneously accessing large cloud files – all on mobile.

For remote workers, 5G will mean lightning fast and high capacity:

  • conferencing
  • mobile connectivity
  • large file transfers
  • cloud performance
  • live streaming
  • ecommerce
  • video

5G business opportunities

What will 5G mean for business in Australia? With a reliable 5G connection businesses will slowly begin to realise they can now be truly untethered, with some people predicting that soon, internet will become entirely wireless networks.

We’ll see small business growth, market access improvements and increases in productivity and efficiency. This will make SME’s more competitive in the global marketplace.

We have already touched on remote work, but we’ll also see practices like marketing change to adopt augmented reality, virtual reality and a higher reliance on video, with the confidence that excellent bandwidth brings.

Web based businesses and ecommerce stores will be able to boost content and store capacity, with snappy web speeds and money transfers easing the pain of doing business online.

Furthermore, we’ll see new businesses emerge in the IT space as well as new apps, business models and products which will inevitably come about with advanced 5G. with a huge capacity and massive speeds, the types of technology this will unlock boggles the mind.

The kinds of business opportunities and technology changes we will see:

  • Data laden activities like autonomous driving will be relying heavily on 5G.
  • Remote surgery can now be enabled and taken up. This will open up health services across rural areas and beyond.
  • Augmented reality and virtual reality will become common and capable, and more immersive gaming experiences will emerge along with more 5G devices.
  • A new reliance on 4K video with low latency and high speeds. This will take marketing by storm.
  • Massive files can now be uploaded and downloaded quickly and with ease. This will enable a range of business activities currently unthinkable.
  • Enhanced cloud applications and the ability to serve large files and speeds.
  • Video conferencing and streaming will be able to handle massively enhanced connections without reliance on Wi-Fi.
  • The online gaming industry will be lit on fire, with all of the accompanying side business that goes with it.