The race to 5G is on and America is determined to be the
first country to build a mass-market 5G wireless network. The recent Visual
Networking Index report by Cisco estimates the U.S. will be the
first to implement a 5G
wireless network. By 2022, it’s projected that 5G networks will
power as many as nine percent of mobile data connections in North America,
compared to four percent in Asia, stated the report.
The Asia-Pacific region will house more than twice the number of 5G devices than
North America by 2022, but connections with 5G wireless networks will be
limited. In the U.S., the push to 5G has been backed by the need for faster
download speeds, more reliable connections, and the support of the federal
government.
“5G will improve the way Americans work, learn, travel, farm, run businesses, and communicate. The race to 5G is a race that American will win,” says Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States and Chairman of the National Space Council at the recent SATELLITE conference.
“The U.S. has made a good start in changing policies to support the deployment of 5G, and as we look around the rest of the world, policy changes of the type we’ve seen here in the U.S. have not yet happened,” says Mary Brown, Senior Director of Government Affairs at Cisco. “We do expect that’s going to be changing over the next 12 to 18 months, and so the race to 5G is very real.”
This race to 5G offers Value-Added Resellers (VARs) a unique opportunity. With federal agencies and commercial companies looking to implement this technology in the coming years, VARs should take the opportunity to familiarize themselves with network changes and potential sales opportunities.
“Having access anywhere, anytime has become something we all rely on,” said Dan Forbes, Sr. Director of Field Sales at Westcon-Comstor. As more users employ more devices, “the concept of that connectivity is very important. From an enterprise networking concept, your opportunities are going to dramatically increase.”
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