Convergence has been buzzword in the telco world for decades now, ever since phone companies transitioned from switched networks to IP-based ones. Today, Alexander Graham Bell would hardly recognize the massive telco/media conglomerates that descend from his venerable Ma Bell.

And yet, while it’s true that voice/Internet convergence has enabled us to watch videos on our smartphones, there remains one holy grail of convergence that has yet been out of reach of the telcos.

Telco/enterprise convergence.

The Trends that Are Disrupting the Status Quo

The pinnacle of modern telephony today is 4G LTE – a set of protocols that empowers the mobile telephony revolution, penetrating the daily lives of people around the globe. But there’s still something missing.

4G LTE connects our phones, as well as a range of other devices, from tablets to home alarm systems. But from the enterprise perspective, the telcos are simply providing communications services – services that stop at the smartphone interface.

5G promises to change this equation, bringing the long-desired convergence between telco and enterprise services.

While it’s true that 5G is a next-generation replacement for 4G LTE, bringing astounding performance to our mobile devices, it’s much more than that. 5G is actually a family of protocols that operate at different distances.

An oversimplified, but useful way of thinking about 5G is that it combines replacements of 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. (This representation is an oversimplification largely because both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are undergoing their own next-generation transformations, promising to give 5G a run for its money – in particular, next-gen Wi-Fi with ranges in the tens of miles.)

Nevertheless, once 5G fully rolls out, the diversity of 5G-enabled endpoints will put 4G LTE to shame. Anything might be a 5G endpoint, from your laptop to the alarm sensors on your windows to the price tag on your clothing.

#cloud #edge computing #5g #cloud-native architecture #react native