Organisations are incorporating complex and sophisticated technology tools into their business strategies to keep up with the pace of change. However, traditional fixed line networking is often not enough to meet the demands of today which means the rapid evolution and advancements of cellular networking are making it a much more viable option. Paul McHugh, Area Director at Ericsson, talks us through the 2024 State of Connectivity in Europe report and provides expert insight into the benefits of cellular connectivity for organisations.
A huge majority of businesses (98% across Europe) believe improved cellular connectivity will lead to business revenue growth. Technology in retail stores is designed to reach new heights by driving footfall into the stores themselves through the use of mobile and automated points of sale, for example.
Paul McHugh, Area Director at Ericsson, commented: “The efficiency of using all this technology, underpinned by reliable, high-performing connectivity, is contributing to that top line growth.
“The benefits described for a retail organisation may be completely different to how a manufacturer, house builder, or a public service organisation may benefit from the same underlying technology.”
The impact of downtime on businesses
Despite some large investment announcements from the European Commission and the UK Wireless Strategy last year, over half (55%) of organisations in Europe still suffer from up to two hours a week of downtime.
With such a vast amount of technology dependent on networking, the consequences are significantly impactful if the networking layer is briefly unavailable, let alone for two hours.
Using the example of retail once again in the context of downtime, McHugh explained: “The retailer cannot process payments, which means they can’t trade, therefore the lifeblood of their business has been taken away for a period of time.”
He clarified the same is to be said for all organisations that use technology as a necessity to function: “Whether it is directly related to revenue generation or indirectly, through productivity and operational efficiency, the impact is huge.
“The answer to avoiding downtime and ensuring business continuity is making sure there is resilience and reliability at the networking layer. This can be achieved in the form of cellular networking.”
Transitioning from exisiting Wi-Fi and wired connection to WWAN and private networks
Existing Wi-Fi and wired services are already serving a purpose. Wi-Fi is there to provide services to consumers, while fibre networking delivers connectivity for corporate services.
“What is increasingly important to organisations is introducing more automation into business processes,” McHugh continued. “This requires more connectivity and more networking capacity in order to deliver; and the type of connectivity that is evolving fastest and becoming the highest performing is cellular.”
For many organisations, dependency on a publicly available cellular network is too much of a risk. Private cellular networks provide a dedicated networking service that only they have access to. McHugh explained that this is particularly necessary in sectors such as renewable energy or agriculture where operations are in rural areas where connectivity is not abundant or available.
Cellular connectivity in security and surveillance settings
Nearly a third of UK organisations use cellular connectivity as a primary network to support security and surveillance.
“Surveillance technologies are very high performing,” said McHugh. “They capture a huge amount of information and are intelligent. Organisations need these surveillance and security systems to be running reliably at all times.”
With the application of AI, a lot more networking capacity is required. “If you’re going to provide the sort of capacity these services require through a fixed line, you may find it becomes cost prohibitive. Whereas, if you can apply the same user experience but using a cellular network, the cost implications are a lot more favourable,” McHugh said.
The potential of 5G being the UK’s most important investment
According to McHugh, forward-thinking innovative organisations recognise that 5G networking is going to underpin their business. “All technology-based services, as well as specific technologies, like robotics, are dependent on high-performing, highly available secure networking – and that’s what 5G offers today.
“I believe the government is focused on this. Looking at the goals in terms of coverage, both at a 4G and 5G level, there’s good ambition there. But we can always do more, we can always go faster, we can always go further.”
Small businesses and enhanced connectivity
Providing examples of different types of small businesses, McHugh highlighted how cellular connectivity is often the best option. However, he points out that if you reside in areas where fixed line performance is not particularly high or cost-effective, cellular connectivity should be considered. And if you’re very distributed or provide a service to a distributed customer base, then cellular connectivity and centralised management of networking could be a good option for you, he believes.
Addressing the UK skills shortage
Just under a third (32%) of UK businesses cite that a lack of digital skills is holding them back from deploying their own cellular networks. For any organisation, the task of managing their own network is not a trivial matter – so much so that we see organisations who specialise in delivering, managing and maintaining networks for organisations.
“Unless you’ve got a huge amount of resource available to you within your own organisation to embark on that mission to deliver and manage a network, I would always consider consulting with providers who specialise in it,” McHugh commented.
The vulnerability of IoT devices
According to a report published last year, 26% of network attacks against European businesses came from compromised IoT devices.
In many cases, IoT technology and IoT applications are the weakest point of defence for an organisation and therefore an attractive access point for attackers. Concerningly, they are also very commonplace.
“Ericsson is just one organisation that has recognised the convergence of networking and security and as a consequence has developed a Secure Access, Secure Edge (SASE) offering,” said McHugh. “It’s not enough today to offer high-performing, reliable networks – they have to be secure.”
SASE, he said, provides security at the access points of a network. All of the value, but also all of the vulnerability, of a network is at the edge; so having a secure edge is absolutely key.
Using cellular networks for backup support
A cellular network is run completely separately from the primary network and therefore offers resilience.
McHugh explained: “If an organisation is running its primary network using fixed line connectivity, there is a possibility that two or even three of these fixed lines terminate at the same local exchange. If so, when there is a failure at that point, you have no resilience.”
However, organisations are hesitant in deploying this system as any backup or failover connectivity is expensive. When it’s sat idle, waiting for a failure, it’s costing money but not delivering value.
Expected trends that could impact cellular connectivity investment
“The big buzz in the tech space at the moment is AI,” McHugh said. “Our experience of AI suggests that it’s another example of a new technology with a significant networking dependency. To enable this technology to perform at a high level, new ideas and new considerations need to be made about networking connectivity.”
In addition, McHugh highlighted connectivity for vehicles is also in demand. “There are a variety of commercial vehicles that have a large networking dependency – whether it’s roadside assistance, fleet vehicles, utility vehicles, haulage vehicles or public transportation.”
