FEATURE
Shifting from hype to reality
The fi rst 5G services went live at the end of 2019 and, despite the uncertainty presented by the fi rst half of this
year, businesses have continued to build out their offerings. What is next for 5G?
The seeds of 5G have
started to crop up across
the UK, but they have
not yet taken root. at
means vendors, distributors
and resellers alike have plenty
of opportunities to develop
products and services that can
truly make the most of 5G
capabilities.
Strong partnerships will
be fundamental to delivering
on this considerable promise.
Gavin Jones, BT Wholesale
Channel Director, explained,
“5G will undoubtedly change
the channel. Its networks
consist of varied technologies,
all working together to deliver
a super-fast, resilient and smart
end result. at’s why constant
dialogue with operators, as
well as the manufacturers
of 5G-ready devices, will be
imperative to maximise the
opportunities for the channel
and their customers.”
He added, “Collaboration
with the channel, built on
strong partnerships with
operators, will speed up the
development of next generation
data-driven, automated,
self-healing solutions. All of
this will help to minimise
downtime, create 5G business
models and maximise channel
opportunities.”
Yet partners will need
to rise to the challenge
too. John Mitchell, Senior
Director EMEA Channel at
Gigamon, said, “5G represents
unprecedented connectivity
opportunities. It will drive a
new growth cycle within the
communication technology
sector and allow partners
to assist their customers
by becoming experts at
implementing 5G services
as well as understanding the
new security challenges 5G
deployment will bring. Anyone
deploying security solutions
or architectures now need
to ensure they are 5G ready,
so they can deploy 5G as
seamlessly as possible at the
time they choose.”
Mitchell added that 5G
also represents an opportunity
for partners to expand their
customer relationships. ere
might still a requirement for
physical solutions but, he said,
partners leading with managed
services will provide greater
value to customers making the
transition.
Specialised services
What this means for
individual businesses will vary
drastically but, as an example,
a company specialising in
virtualisation can use 5G
capabilities to deliver remote
device management. Adam
Wilson,Regional Channel
Manager (EMEA) at Vonage,
explained his company’s
opportunity lies in using the
greater speed in transmission
and lower latency capabilities
of 5G to do just that.
He said that 5G means
“Vonage will be in a position to
better implement and prioritise
virtual networks to remote
devices, required to deliver
real-time applications such as
video and voice over IP. Vonage
and our channel partners
will be able to deliver a more
complete mobile experience,
rich in high quality video and
voice for example. is will
bring more opportunity to
the channel on the basis they
position their consultancy
services appropriately.”
Of course, 5G will
not transform our world
overnight. Kevin Hasley,
Chief Commercial O cer at
RootMetrics, explained that
5G rollouts will continue
to increase availability, but
third-party testing will be key
to separating fact from ction.
He said, “Objective testing
that o ers a clear view of
performance and coverage will
be key to assure deployments
are on track. Improved latency
is also a critical step forward.
“Right now, 5G networks
are operating as Non-
Standalone. is means
5G piggybacks on the same
architecture used for LTE.
As 5G networks grow, we’ll
start to see 5G Stand Alone.
Among other bene ts, moving
to 5G SA will help improve
latency. We’ll be keeping an
eye on both the growth of 5G
availability and movement
Gavin Jones, BT Wholesale Channel Director toward 5G SA over the near
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