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Vodafone Ireland’s Head of Product and Marketing, Brian Duffner (pictured) on how 5G will change how we do business now and into the future.

In August 2019, Vodafone Ireland launched Ireland’s first 5G network. 5G is the next big step forward in how a network can improve people’s lives. Just like 4G was ‘the era of the smartphone’, we expect 5G to be ‘the era of IoT’ or Internet of Things.

The next generation network will not only provide faster speeds for customers, but it is set to have a huge impact on technology use and adoption in nearly every industry across Ireland. It will be an evolution, not an overnight sensation. Although the next-generation network’s much heralded speed is essential, ultimately, its significance lies in the opportunity for new business models.

Vodafone Ireland are leading the way in developing tailored 5G performance solutions. Vodafone’s early 5G engagements with academia – such as the Nova UCD 5G Program and the partnership with the ASSERT Centre in UCC – and in the wider industry ensure Vodafone are best placed at developing bespoke 5G solutions for the Irish market.

What is 5G and what will it bring?

Vodafone 5G network will offer connection speeds of 1GB per second, enabling more than ten times faster speeds on 5G smartphones than typical 4G today. 5G will offer the possibility of higher speed and capacity, lower latency and importantly new possibilities in IoT – which is already having a radical impact on the way businesses operate in recent years. Private networks, enabled by 5G’s capabilities and coverage characteristics, will enable business-and mission-critical services.

It will also facilitate the usage of virtual and augmented reality which we expect enterprises to start utilising to provide training and remote worker and customer support.

In Association with

In more technical terms, 5G allows for network slicing – dividing a single connection into separate slices to, for example, give different traffic types a different priority. Businesses, education and public service will able to digitise more applications and further automate processes to support a new level of productivity and create enhanced customer, student and citizen experiences. In other cases, for industry, manufacturing, agriculture, transport, government and healthcare, reduced time between action and response will make devices, machines and sensors more reactive allowing for bi-directional communication and real-time remote control.

Speed, however, is the star of current conversation and the increase will be impactful. Just as importantly, 5G will create more efficient networks and bring significantly lower latency. No one can imagine what the combination will enable or all the use cases to come.

Manufacturers are already experimenting with things like predictive maintenance and adaptive control. 5G will be a boon to these efforts and make the environment truly wireless. Private networks, enabled by 5G’s capabilities and coverage characteristics, will overcome other deficiencies. In a factory, for example, machines, tools, parts and people will become perfectly synced raising production and facilitating mass customisation for a better customer experience.

The future possibilities enabled by 5G

Early on, the possibilities of 5G seem endless. In cities, 5G will soon enhance traffic management through sensors detecting congestion, combined with smarter lights and road signs to ultimately ease traffic flow.

In emergencies, for inspections or mapping purposes, 5G-enabled drones will quickly go where humans cannot and capture much more information. In healthcare, always-on, ultra-reliable connectivity with high-network priority could support real-time remote patient monitoring – even for critical conditions like epilepsy, stroke and heart disease.

Remote surgery in healthcare, untethered robots in warehouses, enormous operator-free cranes in construction and safe, autonomous vehicles on roads are certainties in the more distant 5G world. Further futuristic applications are practically inconceivable to us today, but the possibilities are vast.

In the longer term, say over the next ten years, 5G will accelerate the IoT through greater density resulting in improved services. Businesses of all types should begin thinking in the context of 5G and ask questions about how they might leverage its power over the next few years.

• 5G is included on all Vodafone Ireland RED Connect and RED Business plans.