CONNECTIVITY
Telco Plus as a Service?
We are rapidly bridging the digital divide. 93% of UK households have access to the internet ( Ofcom’s 2023 Technology Tracker ), and almost all, 99%, of UK businesses with at least 10 employees handle digitised data ( UK Business Data Survey 2024 ). Between 41% and 55% of the UK landmass has 5G coverage from at least one operator ( 5G in the UK Report 2024 ). So, what’s next for telecommunications service providers (often referred to as Telcos or ISPs) and the UCC (Unified Communications and Collaboration) sector?
4G, 5G, 6G more… According to recent Ofcom data,
to connect to 1 million devices per km², which is apparently 1,000 times more than present mobile connections and is 100 times faster than a typical home-based broadband connection. Ivan Romanov, from UCTel, gives a good example of how to explain “100 times faster”, using the example of downloading a 2GB video on different network standards: 5G: 23 seconds Gigabit LTE: 41 seconds 4G LTE: 18 minutes
around 93% of the UK landmass has 4G coverage from at least one mobile network operator, meaning that the vast majority of the UK has access to 4G. The UK government’s target is for “all populated areas” in the UK, including rural communities, to have standalone 5G coverage by 2030. 5G has the potential
The UK government’s target is for “all populated areas” in the UK, including rural communities, to have standalone 5G coverage by 2030.
4G: 27 minutes 3G: 45 minutes
5G Applied The 5G rollout is underway, and so is the advice. The Money Saving Expert website, on the topic of 5G and mobile phones, states “Networks say it’s up to 10 times faster than 4G – and we’ve already seen real-world examples of it achieving over 400 megabits per second (Mbps), considerably faster than the average fibre broadband speed of 30Mbps.” The experts recommend checking in with the main mobile network operators, EE, O2, Three and Vodafone, and smaller networks, such as Voxi, Giffgaff, iD Mobile, and Lebara. Helpfully, the team of experts point out to potential 5G consumers, that you need the 5G
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