5G : THE NETWORK FOR BUSINESS ore . This would greatly improve productivity and safety .”
Flexibility Perhaps the greatest advantage 5G represents to businesses is flexibility in terms of scaling , maintenance and tailoring to specific needs . “ The fact 5G can in effect represent a whole network just through software , without the need for hardware systems makes it a flexible choice for these different use cases , and one which is much more cost effective than the old fashioned approach ,” Andersson explains .
“ However , we are seeing LTE Radio Access Networks , which were part of the technical revolution with 2G and
3G , as being part of a 5G solution . We are not simply throwing LTE away . We are adding new technology that has been ripening after the introduction of LTE . 5G spans so much further than a radio interface , but with this we can make networks purely by software .”
Ericsson is partnering with businesses in a number of industries , from health and automotive to utilities and commodities .
Näslund adds : “ We are also improving our IoT capabilities and machine to machine communications with these new 5G-LTE networks . Before , IoT functions may have been carried on a separate network , using new hardware and interfaces . “ But then we asked ‘ why can we not multiplex these narrowband devices into the LTE with software ?’ This was the first step in the new way of thinking and I ’ m pleased that Ericsson took the lead on this and got the industry to change .”
Sustainability A 5G network also has the potential to save industries large amounts of energy and money . Ericsson ’ s target is to increase data traffic by a factor of 1,000 while at the same time reducing energy consumption by 50 percent .
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