Gartner predicts that by year-end 2021, 70% of large enterprises will rely solely on the Internet for their WAN connectivity in small and remote branch offices – almost twice that of 2017 [1].
If you are considering any of these options, Expereo’s Mobile Broadband offering should be part of your network design. 4G LTE is the best alternative when Internet service cannot be delivered through fixed-line and enables businesses to have a reliable, secure, and flexible connection everywhere with just portable equipment.
Some of the benefits Mobile Broadband can now provide to your network are:
- Guaranteed fully redundant routes. Mobile Broadband networks use a completely separate infrastructure – meaning no more outages due to roadworks.
- Increased aggregated bandwidth. Enable the increase in the speed of data transfers when it matters most.
- Flexible deployments. Rely less on existing infrastructure, with no need to install services underground when these are not available.
Where to start?
Mobile Broadband is increasingly being included in diverse access designs, but that’s not all. As we continue to support enterprises in their Internet journey, we see Mobile Broadband playing a vital role in the following scenarios.
-
Backup/redundant services
Ensuring service uptime is a key focus for IT teams. Using Internet services to connect remote or temporary offices to these Cloud services is a cost-effective and efficient use of your Cloud resources. However, some Internet packages come with longer fix-times and uptime metrics than what’s acceptable for Enterprises – so how can we make the most of these Internet services without compromising uptime?
That is where Mobile Broadband comes in. When it comes to outages, mobile connectivity is a great solution to keeping businesses connected while restoring the primary connection. Failover connectivity ensures that companies stay online when their primary network fails.
Even better, when adding Mobile Broadband as a secondary or tertiary link, redundancy is guaranteed. Mobile Broadband is always a fully redundant last mile path and ISP, which allows it to serve as an additional route to the Internet, allowing your SD-WAN to keep your application performance-optimized.
-
Temporary deployments for super-quick service delivery.
Internet deployments are typically completed within 6-weeks time in urban areas, but this can vary dramatically depending on different factors such as location, infrastructure or service availability, local permits, etc.
Depending on your needs, it is also possible that in-vehicle or “pop-up” sites (for example, a temporary shop for retailers, a mobile healthcare facility, or emergency deployments such as command centres) will require connectivity over shorter timeframes.
Thankfully, our Mobile Broadband services’ versatility plays a crucial role in finding a solution to these scenarios. With the widespread availability and adaptability of 4G LTE cellular networks, Mobile Broadband is a simple and effective method to get connected quickly, easily, and without compromising performance.
-
Remote Working: work from anywhere.
Due to the current global situation, many enterprises opt to switch to a work-from-home model for their staff, with some companies even considering making this a default alternative in the long-run.
Having staff use their own consumer broadband has its downsides: lack of support, no SLA-based agreements, limited capacity, and having to compete with other users on the network.
Expereo’s Mobile Broadband offering provides staff working remotely with a cost-effective backup option when their home broadband inevitably falls victim to an array of issues. Furthermore, available eSIM technology can offer users the best available local connection, and companies can benefit from regional data-pools to maximize economies of scale.
-
Enabling the Internet of Things (IoT).
We can’t talk about Mobile Broadband without mentioning the Internet of Things (IoT). As cities begin to implement more smart technology, Mobile Broadband can offer a simple and effective connectivity solution for these machines, especially when placed at third-party locations or hard-to-reach locations.
Mobile Broadband connectivity also provides an excellent solution for backhauling data from these IoT applications. However, a physical router can offer additional advantages over a SIM-only solution: it is easier to upgrade, it can include additional security features, it’s available from reputable, experienced vendors COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) and is well placed to serve as a backhaul-WAN connection for pure IoT networks (ZIGBEE, LORAWAN, Sigfox, etc.).
What's next – Will 5G have any impact on these use cases?
5G is expected to offer improved bandwidth, latency, and QoS when compared with 4G. But deployment by wireless carriers has been slower than expected, and coverage is still limited.
5G allows the possibility for QoS to be properly applied over cellular networks, alongside network segmentation for separate networks (such as enterprise, consumer, IoT, etc.) with different QoS profiles used over each. The benefit of this is that higher grade networks can be delivered over 5G with guarantees on latency, bandwidth, packet loss, etc.
Time will tell whether the possibility for these features will lead to widespread roll-out by operators, but Expereo is optimistic about the potential positive effects of 5G on the wireless marketplace and is ready to harness the capability available.
Dependent on the commercial offering developed by Enterprises, we are also considering 5G as a serious contender in providing primary line connectivity competitively, both in price and capability, to traditional fixed-line services. But we’re still some time away from this point.
