5G is finally here in the UK and its arrival comes after months, if not years of both hype and confusion as the BBC so rightly put it.

EE is the first mobile network provider to launch the new 5G service but others are soon set to follow suit with the likes of Three rolling out 5G a little later in the summer (if the government doesn’t ban Huawei’s equipment).

So now it’s here, what do you need to know?

Well for one thing, the initial 5G deals aren’t cheap and so far, with patchy connectivity, limited hand set compatibility and better but not mind-blowing speeds (you can read more on that here), as yet, it’s probably not worth it either. However, there’s more than just speed that 5G connectivity has to offer and this is where biding your team could have the greatest advantage.

As yet, the 5G network is still reliant on many existing fibre lines and that means they’re limited in the data transfer speeds they can deliver so that’s something that’s certainly going to need an overhaul if 5G is to live up to the hype. More than that though, many of the biggest long-term benefits of 5G are yet to launch – faster phones are just the short-term perk.

The theory behind investing in the 5G network, is that it will be able to simultaneously support over a million devices per square kilometre, this in turn will support millions of data capturing sensors and that means businesses will have even more data to analyse than ever before, on the habits and behaviours of their customers. For you and I as the end users, this will ultimately lead to so called “smarter” services.

Another buzz word associated with 5G is “network slicing”. This refers to the ability 5G gives operators, to tailor different 5G contracts to different types of users, by virtually slicing up their network into different pieces. Each “piece” would then have its own guaranteed download speed, latencies and bandwidths. The benefit here is that it would allow service providers and even users to effectively choose the type of 5G contract that best suits their usage, so gamers may opt for contracts with low latencies. Don’t hold your breath on this one just yet though, as EE isn’t expecting to launch this kind of functionality until 2023!

So there you have it, 5G is here – sort’ve.

If your business is thinking of investing in 5G or you're interested in improved data cabling to help boost your business efficiencies, we can help. Let’s talk.