What Is 5G & How Marketers Can Prepare For It

Is your brand ready to embrace a blazing fast, hyper-connected future?

Last week, Apple was granted permission by FCC to conduct trials with 5G millimeter wave technology, which allows it to add 5G support to future iPhones and other Apple devices. With Apple now officially on board, 5G seems ever so close to reality. So, what exactly is 5G? When are we getting it? And what are the implications they might bring for marketers? Let’s dive in.

What is 5G

5G is a term that telecom companies and marketers are throwing around to describe the next-generation of mobile networks beyond the 4G LTE mobile networks in use today. Think how fast the wireless 4G connection usually is, times the speed by ten, and you got a supposed 5G experience, where you will be able to download an ultra-HD movie within seconds or play an elaborately designed VR games via streaming without buffering.

And it’s not just the massive speed improvement; stability and low latency are also huge selling points of 5G, making it especially appealing for the tech players developing autonomous cars and IoT networks. The blazing fast speed combined with high stability that 5G brings could even open the door to new robotic manufacturing and medical techniques.

Sounds pretty exciting, right? Well, unfortunately, we’re not quite there yet.

Aiming for 2020

As of mid-2017, there is no industry consensus on a clear definition nor established hardware standard for 5G, although many major carriers have been busy testing their own 5G programs. At the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain this year, network equipment makers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Qualcomm all made 5G a big talking point, touting their respective grand visions and roll plans for the next stage of mobile connectivity. Qualcomm partnered with LG to bring 5G to connected cars, whereas Cisco announced that it will be arming Verizon with the 5G architecture that the carrier needs for its 5G network trials.

Despite the industry buzz, it is assumed that 5G networks will not become commercially available until at least 2020. Even the development roadmap for 5G created by 3GPP, the mobile industry standards body and whose specification process that all mobile operators and vendors participate, puts 5G still solidly 4 to 5 years away from becoming consumer ready. And it’s not just about setting down an industry standard — mobile carriers will need to upgrade their infrastructure by building out the last-mile fibers and deploying numerous mini-antennas to ensure the coverage of 5G networks, which is not exactly easy work.

That being said, 2020 is not really that far away. Sometimes, innovation-triggered consumer behavior can change faster than anticipated, blindsiding brands that are unprepared. Just witness how urban China transformed from a predominantly cash-first society to the cashless, mobile payment-powered global oddity it is today in merely 3 years. Therefore, it is important that brands start preparing for the hyper-connected 5G future today.

What 5G Means for Brands

Just as the rollout of 4G LTE networks in early 2010s gave rise to video-heavy mobile platforms like Vine (RIP), Snapchat, and Musical.ly, 5G network will usher in a new reality for consumers and brands, where new data-heavy immersive formats — such as live 360-degree video, interactive virtual reality content, and sophisticated augmented reality experiences — will become the norm, as instant and stable connectivity is expected everywhere. This will give rise to a whole new wave of changes in the way people consumes media and thereby alters how brands can reach, target, and engage with customers.

Moreover, the advances in IoT connectivity that 5G promises to unleash will help popularize AI-powered automation and data analysis for brands. Your AI solution is only as good as the data you train it with, and as more IoT devices become online, all running in the background quietly to collect data, brands will gain an enormous amount of contextual data, with the right partners and strategies, data that they can then leverage for insights into consumer behaviors and to enhance their customer experiences.

Some startups are already aiming to help brands prepare for a 5G future. For example, ItsOn offers a service that uses its cloud computing software for enhancing the performance of mobile networks and delivering a flexible array of services, allowing carriers to change their pricing and service offerings in hours as opposed to weeks. In the eSports arena, there is Haste, which provides a cloud software service that optimizes the internet connection for people engaged in live, interactive experiences. Haste is currently beta-testing a eSports accelerator service which reduces network lag for gamers, which presents opportunities for brands seeking to reach out to the eSports viewers.

And then, there are startups that will greatly benefit from the increased connectivity that 5G is set to bring. For example, Connected Signals, a traffic signal data platform for connected and autonomous cars, and Red Ant, which deploys tablets to store associates in brick-and-mortar locations and enables associates to instantly access consumer information, are both companies that would be even more powerful and useful for auto and retail brands once 5G rolls around.

What Brands Need To Do

To get ready for that future, brands will need to start exploring immersive media formats such as VR and AR to build up their content library. While VR and especially AR content is in early stages of development, this is actually a good time to start exploring them as consumer expectation sits low. As we pointed out in our latest VR event recap, branded 3D assets is a good way to integrate into VR experiences. Plus, they have the added benefit of being able to be ported from VR to AR experiences as well.

As 5G network vastly reduces wait time and lagging in digital media consumption, it is likely to lower the level of patience that consumers have, which means brands will need to work harder to ensure the stability of their web services and the accessibility of their digital assets. Timely responses can also be delivered by deploying chatbots and other automated messaging services such as Apple’s Business Chat. The goal is to never make your customer wait, because the speed of 5G will make any sort of buffering a deal-breaker.

Ultimately, 5G will change the way that brands design and deliver customer experiences, as it will power a whole new network of IoT devices, both in private and public spaces, that are constantly collecting data and communicating with each other. This means that smart brands will need to adopt a data-centric approach in designing your customer experience to ensure that it stays consistent across platforms and devices, To prepare for that, brands also should begin to think about how you may incorporate machine learning and AI automation to deliver an optimized customer experience.