The secret to success with 5G: Start planning now.

The number of 5G users is quickly rising. In its Mobility Report for February 2023, the wireless network hardware provider Ericsson estimated that more than 1 billion 5G subscriptions are now active globally. Ericsson forecasts that 5G subscriptions will reach 5 billion by the end of 2028.
 
More businesses and consumers are making the transition every day. In our 5G "Adoption & Acceleration" Survey of 200 enterprise IT and network decision-makers whose companies have gotten started with 5G, all respondents had made the move within the last two years. In fact, 83 percent of respondents had done so within the previous 12 months, underscoring the recency and rapidity of 5G adoption.

Why is 5G becoming so popular? Compared to earlier cellular technologies such as 4G, 5G offers more bandwidth, faster uploads and downloads, increased reliability, and support for more devices within a given physical area.

“We need the highest level of connectivity and the fastest networks,” said one IT professional in a third-party research focus group we commissioned, explaining why their company turned to 5G. “There’s just a lot of users and interfaces to support.”

Public 5G services are now widely available, making 5G an excellent solution for remote locations and mobile applications. Our 5G network now reaches 98 percent of Americans—and that footprint keeps expanding.

Businesses adopt 5G for a variety of reasons. Some seek to give employees and customers a better mobile experience through 5G’s speed, capacity, and reliability. Others are building out network infrastructure in support of automation and operational efficiency.

Here are some of the ways that organizations across industries might get started with 5G:

Business managers view 5G as an enabling technology to help them advance digital transformation projects in areas such as customer experience and employee engagement. “For us, the most important factor was the innovation aspect,” said another focus group participant. “We knew that we had to jump ahead of our competitors and adopt 5G as early as possible.”

Because 5G is the first generation of cellular connectivity designed explicitly with business needs in mind, it’s increasingly being used in conjunction with other emerging technologies. In our survey, 48 percent of respondents said they were using 5G with artificial intelligence, and 26 percent were using 5G with augmented reality.

5G services are available over our far-reaching public 5G network, through tailored private 5G networks, or a combination of both. A hybrid approach can often provide comprehensive services across the widest footprint. Factors that will determine the best solution include the planned use case, a building’s location and design, and existing network infrastructure.

“Whether a business ultimately uses a public, private, or hybrid 5G architecture, our approach [with T-Mobile for Business 5G Advanced Network Solutions] is to start with a proof of concept—which we call realization of value,” says Chan. Initial 5G deployments tend to be limited in scope—for example, for a few months at a single location. Once the pilot project has been successfully completed, the deployment can be expanded to other parts of the complex and additional sites.

Network and IT professionals are often the gatekeepers for network infrastructure and services. But it’s not unusual for line-of-business managers to spur the initial conversation to consider 5G.

Regardless of which team initiates a 5G exploration, it’s essential that business managers and IT teams collaborate on how and where to get started.

For example, here are a few questions that might be asked in a retail environment:

• What technologies are already in use in retail stores?
• Is there digital signage?
• Are robots or other forms of automation already in use?
• How many orders are picked and packed?
• How does the retailer track inventory?
• Are the employees sufficiently trained?
• What pain points or opportunities need to be addressed?

This kind of assessment might help a retail brand determine that the best starting point for a 5G pilot test would be heat-mapping customer traffic through one of its stores. A feasibility program would seek to generate insights into store layout, product displays, and where more retail associates might be needed. Once successful, the initiative can then be expanded.

Businesses in other sectors will have their own industry-specific questions to guide discussions and set priorities.

• Building an all-star team.

• Whatever the job, wherever they work, 5G can empower employees.

• Frequently asked questions about 5G.