5G Gateway Solutions for business internet (flexible, feature-rich, fixed wireless access router solutions) have been a game-changer for businesses around the globe. While companies continue to adapt to new technologies, wireless connectivity will play an important role in driving efficiencies, creating new opportunities, and optimizing operations. From more robust wireless WANs to smarter IoT applications, 5G Gateway Solutions, coupled with NetCloud Manager provisioning, management and visibility, provides the foundation for the next phase in enterprise networking. This blog explores several key benefits for businesses looking to leverage 5G wireless gateway solutions.
5G Gateway: Key Benefits for Businesses
Rolling out 5G Gateway Solutions for business internet in stores and other fixed-site locations is about connecting more applications and devices to the internet to improve many critical business functions, including customer service, safety, operations and more. 5G Gateways enhance operational performance and offer several key benefits to businesses, including:
- Reliability: 5G Gateways offer dependable “over the air” connectivity even in challenging scenarios and use cases.
- Scalability: 5G Gateways are highly scalable and are based on cellular infrastructure. Manage thousands of devices in hundreds of locations with group capabilities that batch similar functions to improve operational efficiencies and lowered costs of deployment.
- Simplicity: 5G Gateways minimize deployment disruption so that focus can remain on the business without concern for the network. Often, sites can be deployed the same day without needing to trench cables, drill holes, or wait months for fixed lines to be available. With simplified cloud-based management, even Lean IT can manage the network without requiring on-site IT staff.
- Agility: A 5G Gateway helps reliably connect where wires won’t work or are inconvenient. The agility that comes from connecting wirelessly accommodates different business needs, especially when locations are temporary or transient, such as pop-up shops or events. Businesses can expect faster times to revenue and easy moves, adds and changes across several diverse use cases.
- Primary and failover connectivity: Whereas wired failover typically uses the same last–mile trenches and backhaul pathways, a 5G Gateway connection offers a diverse pathway through the air and allows businesses to send traffic across a 5G or LTE link immediately. This automatic failover and WAN redundancy enable reliable uptime for networks where 24/7 connectivity is paramount.
- Easily add 5G Gateways to existing fixed location infrastructure: With one wireless broadband solution, businesses can provide Bluetooth and Wi-Fi while supporting integrations with Azure, AWS, and other platforms — expediting deployment and minimizing infrastructure.
- Centrally monitor and manage network performance and security: Control the reliability and security of your network solutions centrally through one cloud-based management platform. With a direct connection from the console port of the adapter to the primary router through Out-of-Band management, administrators can connect to the router over the air, even if IP and Ethernet on the router are not functioning or available. This enables remote troubleshooting without sending a services a truck or paying for slow, expensive POTS lines.
How Small Businesses Can Leverage 5G Gateway Today
With a 5G Gateway, business can unlock new possibilities for innovation. Here are some key applications of 5G Gateways in today’s small business environment:
- The all-in-one office: 5G Gateways feature a small footprint and are ideally suited to serve medium office networks, retail stores, quick serve restaurants and other standalone sites where space is at a premium and IT staff is at a minimum.
- Immediate connectivity through cellular: 5G Gateway routers feature embedded high-performance 5G or LTE modems, eliminating the need to wait for wired lines. These routers establish a secure cellular connection as the primary link, guaranteeing day-1 connectivity at new locations. Businesses can open on schedule, unshackled by network delays.
- Connect with enterprise-class cellular: Leverage Wireless WAN routers with advanced modem modules, proprietary software, and support for a wide variety of carriers to unlock the power of LTE and 5G.
- Support multiple types of WAN and LAN connections: 5G Gateway wireless routers are built with flexibility in mind. They can support various WAN and LAN connection types, including cellular, wired broadband, fiber and satellite. This allows businesses to leverage the most suitable option for their specific needs. In addition, these multi-WAN capabilities enable businesses to distribute network traffic across multiple WAN connections for optimal performance and redundancy. Additionally, businesses can utilize cellular as a failover option, ensuring uninterrupted operation even if the primary wired connection goes down.
- Failover protection: Unforeseen challenges such as storms, construction accidents, and networking configuration errors can cause WAN downtime, which is costly and debilitating for organizations that need their technologies, devices, and applications to be connected to the data center and the cloud at all times. Network failover solutions such as a 5G Gateway with NetCloud Manager Services provide diverse secondary networks that can be monitored from anywhere. It’s the best way to maintain access to the data and tools that drive efficiency on a daily basis.
- Protect critical information: Protect your business with all-in-one solutions that have integrated security including app- aware control, firewall, threat detection, content filtering, and access to cloud-based security. Also consider a secure foundation with zero trust security and client-based and clientless remote access.
- Centrally manage: Get your branches connected without service truck rolls or on-site IT professionals. Centrally define global policies and monitor the network and applications.
- Optimize LTE and SD-WAN: Zero trust SD-WAN is built for a wireless, cloud-first world with a focus on non-disruptive insertion and massive scale.
Conclusion
From retail stores and restaurants to pop-up locations and offices of all kinds, customer interactions and business operations have become highly dependent on connected devices, applications, and the cloud. Agile, reliable, and secure network connections are crucial — requiring organizations to rethink traditional wired WAN approaches. Whether using cellular for a primary, hybrid, or secondary WAN link at fixed and temporary sites, Ericsson’s NetCloud Service and wireless 5G Gateway routers deliver best-in-class LTE and 5G at the edge. With 5G Gateway, businesses can curtail costly network downtime with branch solutions that support LTE as the primary or secondary connection — or both.