We’ve all heard the term, “cutting the cord.” Up until now, it’s always meant getting rid of traditional cable TV, delivered via a hard-wired cable such as coaxial cable or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). With people instead of paying for over-the-top (OTT) services such as Netflix and Disney Plus, delivered via wireline internet providers – internet service providers (ISPs).
Now that 5G wireless is here, we’re going to hear “cutting the cord” applied to these wireline providers, especially when it comes to business use. Why? Because 5G is a disruptive technology. You may not have heard the term before. Most technological change is incremental. For example, each new generation of the iPhone is similar to the last one, each iteration of the Samsung Galaxy. That is, the user only has to learn about a few small changes or feature upgrades. They don’t need to read a manual.
Disruptive Technology
So what is disruptive technology? It is a technology that completely redefines how a need is met. It’s a step-change, an inflection point. For example, the development of the printing press dramatically transformed the book production industry. It even came with a new word: “printing.” Likewise, the powered loom forever changed the way cloth was manufactured. But how about a modern example: you may remember Sirius Satellite Radio, and its competitor XM (later XM Satellite Radio). In the 1990s, both companies invested billions of dollars developing technologies and launching satellites that, for a monthly subscription, delivered hundreds of radio channels to your car or home.
Then a disruptive technology came along and destroyed their business model. That technology was wireless internet. Why would people pay a hefty monthly subscription for satellite radio when they could receive hundreds of channels via their cell-connected smartphone? Especially with seamless handoffs between cell towers as users’ cars sped along the freeway.
What is the next disruptive technology? It is 5G Nationwide, and Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband. 5G Nationwide typically uses the existing 700, 1700, 1900, and 2100 Mhz frequency bands and utilizes Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) to increase the bit rate. While Ultra Wideband (UW) uses the new millimeter wavelength, expressed as 28 GHz and 39 GHz.
Apart from the obvious advantage to businesses of higher bandwidths (bit rate) that UW brings, there is another one: lower latency. You may remember a couple of years ago that lower latency was very important to the big investment houses that trade on our stock exchanges. With computers making investment decisions in microseconds, the time it took for a buy or sell instruction to travel via photons or electrons to the stock market mainframes could make the difference between a big profit and a big loss. So each trader wanted the shortest physical connection.
In my world (writing as an ordinary mortal), lag time is the delay between the TV studio and the interviewer at the game. The studio anchor asks a question and there is a delay while the person at the game stares vacantly at the camera.
Game Changer in 2021
Verizon has designed the UW infrastructure with faster switching speeds. In a recent trial, Ultra Wideband achieved a lag time of 30 ms versus 53 ms for LTE. This means that machine-to-machine business applications can now communicate wirelessly and in near real-time. This is a disruptive technology and it is about to become a game-changer for ConectUS Partners and their customers.
Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below. We look forward to talking to you soon!
