Though 4G is still in rollout the EU wants 5G plans in place by 2015. Is it time to prepare for the next surge in mobile data costs?
What a difference a few months can make. Last August we were asking if 5G was just a laboratory project, bolstering the innovation credentials of big infrastructure companies like Huawei but years away from commercial rollout. We didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
By February European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes was urging delegates at MWC2014 to speed up development of the technology, calling 5G an ‘exponential’ boost in speed and bandwidth, rather than a linear progression from 4G.
So the push is officially on. Some 700 million euros were pledged by the Commission in 2013 to 5G development, and the telecoms industry has responded with a cumulative investment of three billion euros in related R&D.
In the UK, EE recently announced plans to roll out a 5G network by 2022. This alongside promises from Vodafone that its ‘superfast 4G’ service would be a potential replacement for fixed broadband in rural areas, means support for 5G from national governments can also be expected to rise.
5G is seen as essential to the growth of the internet of things, the integration of fixed and wireless broadband, and the adoption of wearable tech. With Samsung recently announcing a lab-based 5G technology that delivers transfer speeds of 1Gbps, mobility managers need to be thinking now about how that much mobile data bandwidth in the palm of your hand will impact end user behaviour.
Monthly bill shock is already the reality for too many organizations, thanks to ever faster and more powerful handsets and tablets that make video streaming both easy and enjoyable. Video costs dearly. At current cellular data speeds, even viewing for just ten minutes a day can consume 1GB in a month. Video calls meanwhile can use between 5mb and 30mb for a 5-minute session.
It’s not hard to imagine how gaming on mobile devices might explode with a 5G connection. Massively multiplayer mobile games can require data rates of up to 17mb for every 10 minutes of play. Each new generation of games also improves on the previous version’s graphics and these – especially 3D – mean large file sizes, some within the 200mb range.
With a 5G data connection powering demand, the rise in data consumption — and cost — on your company plan could certainly be ‘exponential’.
Getting ready for the 5G reality
So how should you respond? The most important part is communication, making clear to the users what sort of data usage you consider acceptable and what you don’t. Putting in place a user agreement is a great place to start.
However, if you’ve done this and your bills are still rising it’s time to look deeper. If your billing simply splits spend into calls and data you may need to look at implementing something that gives you insight into that ‘black box’ of data spend. You can start to separate gaming traffic from other acceptable data/usage types and understand how much data an individual company user is consuming – and on what.
Once you have the information you can start putting in place processes to drive down costs. We recommend having the infrastructure in place now to ensure you can switch on controls that minimize how much costly data employees can consume, whilst maintaining enough flexibility to allow reasonable access to popular apps and data types. You can then use data compression to tackle video and other fat data and file types, or potentially cap users at an allocated personal data limit.
Whether it’s 5G, 4G or 3G, mobile data consumption – and costs – are already on the rise. The truth is, as with many things, the old adage “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” rings true. Start with understanding your bills and from there you can start to make a real impact.
