Companies building new technologies for 5G deployment make a compelling argument for why the more robust wireless standard is the path forward.

While Wi-Fi is ubiquitous now and used for a variety of needs, its immense popularity can also make it less attractive for enterprise use cases where performance and reliability can determine business success or failure.

“If you were to open your phone and look at all the Wi-Fi hotspots that exist right here, there is an enormous amount of contention for the exact same spectrum, the performance is not guaranteed,” said Douglas Lieberman (pictured, left), senior director of global solutions co-creation services at Dell Technologies Inc. “If you have machines that are moving around a factory, if you have robots that need to work together, you can’t afford for it to be great one minute and lousy the next minute. You need consistent high performance. That’s where these 5G networks and private 5G networks are really, really important.”

Lieberman spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Lisa Martin and Dave Vellante at MWC 2023, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. He was joined by Dennis Wong (pictured, right), vice president of enterprise 5G and platform at Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (Singtel), and they discussed why 5G will become more broadly adopted in the enterprise. (* Disclosure below.)

5G trial on the spot

Singtel provides a ready-made solution for enterprises still weighing the pros and cons of 5G conversion. The company offers GENIE, a portable 5G platform that enables users to experience 5G as a trial use case on their own premises.

Wong described one customer who tested 5G using the portable platform: “Immediately, he could see there was a lot of difference in performance. It’s really about getting the customer to understand why 5G is better. Let them experience it.”

Deployment of 5G is already revealing ways that enterprises can take advantage of the wireless standard. One Dell customer – a mining company – needed a safer way to extract ore following underground detonations. It’s a process too unsafe for humans in the immediate aftermath, but 5G provides a way for robots to begin the collection process more rapidly.

“With a 5G solution, we’ve enabled autonomous vehicles to go in there and start the process of collecting,” Lieberman said. “It’s substantially improving the safety, security, output and revenue of those mines. There are places where Wi-Fi is still going to remain a very powerful long — term solution, but there are a lot of use cases where Wi-Fi simply doesn’t work. 5G is enabling people to now have a real solution that works.”

As SiliconANGLE has reported, companies like Broadcom are building 5G chipsets which are a critical piece of the value chain in telecommunications. The telcos are spending more than one trillion dollars on building out 5G networks and critical silicon technology is an enabler to end-to-end success.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the MWC 2023 event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for MWC 2023. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the primary sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE