IoT Insider Podcast | Episode 13: How to get started with 5G

Bernie McPhillips
Hey everybody, I’m Bernie McPhillips, Sales Director at Pangea. We have a bit of a takeover situation this month, and I’ll be hosting this month’s Pangea podcast. Today I’m joined by our system architect and our resident 5G expert Dr. Arslan Usman. Please say hello Arslan.

Dr Arslan Usman
Hi everyone, hi Bernie. Thanks for having me.

Bernie McPhillips
You’re very welcome, great to have you. And today we’re going to take a look at our new 5G solutions. Going to explain how you, our valued Pangea partners can use these solutions to open up brand new revenue streams within your customer base. So in case you haven’t heard, we’re absolutely thrilled to announce that our 5G solutions are now live, I feel like there should be air horns and things going off now. Which means if you’re one of our partners, you can now officially say to your customers that you can offer 5G solutions. Powered by our new 5G router, you’ll be able to offer 5G versions or managed services; that includes our award winning Multi-network services, on demand backup, all the way through to Layer 2 TP and Static IPs as well. So lots to talk through Arslan very exciting times I’m sure you’ll agree?

Dr Arslan Usman
Yeah.

Bernie McPhillips
So first thing I’d like your opinion on as our resident 5G expert, I’ll refer to you as that right throughout this podcast just to hammer that point home. Do you believe this is a good time to incorporate 5G into one of our partners current portfolios?

Dr Arslan Usman
Well, thanks, Bernie. So there’s a lot of talk going on in the market right now whether it is the right time to start investing in 5G. We’re talking about perfect timing, which is definitely an essential aspect of any successful business. I believe if we take a look at mobile network operators across the UK, you will see how they have started to gather momentum to work on 5G national coverage. Most recent example is Vodafone’s rollout in Swansea. It’s very recent news. At the same time, we shouldn’t forget that we have had a rough year so far, and it has hindered progress in many sectors like rollouts for 5G cellular networks as well. But on the positive side of it, there are now a handful of 5G enabled cell phones in the market. Intel is signing deals with different companies to bring out 5G enabled laptops, factories and industries are paving their way towards Industry 4.0 through private 5G networks. So the 5G rollouts are quite a success as all MNOs have a strong footprint across various parts of London, including EE’s coverage in Kingston where I am sitting right now. Another thing is that Ofcom is going to have another 5G auction, and it’s happening in January 2021 for the Sub-6 GHz frequencies. So basically all the signs, they’re leading towards a successful 5G story. Finally, with our recent acquisition of a 5G cellular router, and doing some very successful runs in terms of massive speeds, low latency, I believe that it’s perfect timing for the Channel to start investing in the 5G world.

Bernie McPhillips
Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic, I’m sure that’s what the Channel will want to hear Arslan. Certainly our Pangea partners. Sounds like the perfect time to get involved and to incorporate 5G into a portfolio, which is awesome. So assuming you know, I’m a Pangea partner, what exactly do I need to do to get started?

Dr Arslan Usman
Well we start from imagining what kind of business case requirements you have. So if you believe that your business case requires an ultra fast cellular connection with a lower latency compared to the legacy 4G networks, then you simply need three things to get started. First and foremost, of course, you will need a 5G enabled router with a 5G modem inside it. And it has to be tested and verified because you can find a lot of devices out there which are not really tested and verified because it’s something very new. Second, you need a 5G enabled SIM card that will go into your router. And finally you will need to ensure that the area where you’re going to deploy your 5G solution has 5G coverage. So we can do all three for you at Pangea. As we have had a very successful 5G router test. We have 5G enabled SIM cards and finally using our coverage checker on our website we can see whether your postcode is 5G ready or not. So I believe it’s not too much to worry about as we have got you covered.

Bernie McPhillips
Yeah, sounds pretty awesome. So we’ve already established there’s never been a better time to get started in 5G. Three simple things to get started. Device, SIM, coverage. Get a device from Pangea, SIM from Pangea. Check coverage using Pangea’s coverage checker on our website, which now incorporates 5G as well. That sounds really awesome. I’m not a particularly technical person as you’ll know Arslan, but is it difficult to set up in terms of the router? How would I do that?

Dr Arslan Usman
So here let me give a proper introduction to our 5G router to our listeners. Well, starting with it’s technical aspects; it’s a dual SIM router with an embedded 5G enabled modem of course. Based on our test runs in different parts of London, it allows massive speeds and lower latency compared to a 4G connection within the same area. So the tests we did were, firstly, we did 5G only, and we had really high speeds, low latency then we in the same area, same spot, we ran the same router for 4G only and we could see the very significant difference between the speeds and latency. So the router when you look at it, it has a rugged look, has six antennas for better indoor coverage and you can run it better on 5G only mode or 5G preferred mode based on your business case. It’s an industrial grade router, it has Gigabit Ethernet. The Wi-Fi support is the same as your usual legacy 4G cellular routers, like 802.11 AC and 802.11 AN. It has a dual core CPU so it can hold really fast connectivity and configuration settings. To set it up, all you have to do is simply insert a 5G enabled SIM card, then power it up, of course, and allow some time for it to show some signs of connectivity. Finally, you do simple configuration settings by accessing it through an ethernet cable or through Wi-Fi. Well, at Pangea, we will set it up for you before we ship it to you. So in summary, yes, it is new, it is outstanding, but you can set it up simply like any other 4G cellular router.

Bernie McPhillips
I’m sure that’ll be music to our partners ears. Although it’s a very different underlying technology, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be any different or any more difficult to set up then maybe existing products in our portfolio, which is great news indeed. So that’s obviously what’s outward facing to the customer, at a network level, and more technically within our partners will they need to change any of their existing infrastructure?

Dr Arslan Usman
Well, Bernie in one word, no. As mentioned earlier, if you have 5G coverage for your postcode, all you need to do is install the 5G router in the premises, and you’re good to go. Because any of your Wi-Fi enabled devices should be able to connect to this router without a hiccup because the Wi-Fi connectivity in this router includes 802.11 A, B, G, and AC, all those legacy Wi-Fi standards are there. And it supports both the frequencies for the usual Wi-Fi frequency 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. So you don’t really have to change any infrastructure, it will fit your needs and requirements, just like the 4g cellular routers that people have already.

Bernie McPhillips
Yeah, it sounds absolutely awesome. Again, just exactly the same as I was mentioning, when we were talking about configuring the routers and what is outward facing, you know very little change. It’s a new form of connecting to new protocol within a network, etc. But there’s nothing particularly onerous or difficult that our partners would need to undertake to actually be able to deliver these services, which is awesome. So a lot of the phrases that we’re using, a lot of the language that we’re using here would mean a lot to us will mean a lot to our listeners, because we’re in telecoms we’re in IoT, and have been for more years than I would care to mention. So we get this right, but how would our resellers, how would our Pangea partners effectively present this technology out to their customers?

Dr Arslan Usman
Well, Bernie it’s very simple. So first thing is, as I mentioned earlier, if the customers have a business need that requires massive speeds and lower latency, which is quite natural nowadays. So you can tell them that this router has the capability to fulfill all these requirements. We have done the test for you already and we know it is out there and it can fit your business needs definitely. One thing I hear I would like to emphasise, is that you might have to clear a few confusions in your customers mind. Such as, is 5G just another name for 4G? Or is 5G even real? Because unfortunately, there is a lot of misleading content out there that can deviate them from investing into 5G. So we at Pangea have been providing useful insights into the 5G world and you can always direct your customers to our various blog posts and previous podcasts that were mostly about 5G and our most recent blog post is all about our 5G router. So there you can see how the 5G router works. And what capability it brings with it. So that will give you a very nice overview, and a very user friendly version of the router that you can sell to your customers.

Bernie McPhillips
No, that’s awesome. I think that the bit that you said there about being user friendly is obviously critical. So you know that, I’m not a technical person at all, but I’ve been in telecoms a good while. I understand it’s a world full of acronyms. It’s a world full of numbers and dots etc. and a lot of that translates to mean something to me, but for a customer who’s running a completely different type of business. It could be agriculture, transport, retail, it’s translating the technology into something that has to be meaningful to them right? And you’ve already alluded to it massively there today. And I know in previous podcasts, in previous blogs that you’ve written about the overall benefits of 5G you know, it’s not 4G, but faster. There’s a lot of other benefits that come of it, which is what I’m particularly excited about. The low latency, the ultra fast speeds, and then also the level of connection density is what’s really going to enable the Internet of Things globally, it’s going to give us things like connected vehicles, maybe even autonomous driverless vehicles in the future. You can’t have any form of latency in the network that’s connecting vehicles, the red car breaks, the blue car can’t think too much about it before it breaks too. Otherwise, there’s gonna be an accident. Anything that’s going to involve video, that low latency is going to be fantastic. It’s going to feel like such an immersive experience. talking to somebody in video, because it is going to feel like a real time dialogue. And then your connected machinery, AI equipment, machines, being able to make much quicker decisions, much more real time decisions, etc, that’s what is really exciting for me, it’s not necessarily the speeds that can be achieved. Or even the low latency, it’s the technology that this network protocol is going to enable. Moving from 3G to 4G wasn’t even really just the same but faster, it enabled things that we’ve not seen before. And that’s what 5G will do, right?

Dr Arslan Usman
Absolutely, yes, you have given a perfect summary to it. It’s going to enable all three use cases that we have been speaking about in our blog posts, the enhanced mobile broadband, ultra reliable low latency communication, and finally, massive machine type communication. So these three combined together will bring a perfect 5G portfolio. And I believe that, because as I said earlier, that Ofcom is going to have another auction soon. So this means that the operators they’re already revamping and they’re preparing their strategy to bring about a complete 5G solution to the customers in the UK.

Bernie McPhillips
That’s exactly what I mean Arslan, it’s not just the same but faster isn’t it? It’s the technology. I think with even 2G to 3G to 4G, it wasn’t just being able to open up a website or a browser quicker. It wasn’t about just being able to download a file quicker. It enabled real time video. It enabled us to be able to do things on FaceTime, WhatsApp, etc, to be able to see our family members from all over the world. Effectively connect you to the things that are important to you, either in your business or your personal life. And we weren’t able to do that on a cellular network before 3G came along, and then even more so with 4G, being able to access those servers, being able to have those real time experiences with people from remote locations. And 5G, you know, does all of that but incredibly more so. Is there anything else that you kind of want to want to touch on today?

Dr Arslan Usman
I think just one more thing. We have a few weeks left of summer. So get some sunshine and enjoy the rest of it.

Bernie McPhillips

Yeah, that’d be awesome. We have mentioned it a couple of times, but it would be really cool if our listeners could check out Arslan’s latest post in all the usual places; on our Twitter feed on LinkedIn. Go to our website, an excellent rundown of the 5G router specs is available, more information on how 5G Solutions might look when deployed and the benefits that you’ll get from deploying them. Lots of more information on my recent blog post as well. So please make sure that you sign up in all the usual places. Follow Pangea on LinkedIn. Follow Pangea on Twitter. Please subscribe to our podcast on whichever platform you choose to listen on. and sign up to our newsletter as well via our website we promise not to bombard you. And of course if you do have any questions about 5G, how you as a Pangea partner can harness the power of 5G. Please feel free to drop us a line and get in touch with an account manager either myself or Arslan. We’d love to hear from you and discuss it in more detail. But other than that, it’s goodbye from me for now I hope to have another takeover at some point in the near future. Thanks, Dan for letting me take the reins this time around. I’ve really enjoyed it. Once again, just a massive thank you to you Arslan, our system architect here at Pangea, but more importantly, our resident 5G expert in a position to present all over the world now right? I hear you were in Hawaii at some point earlier this year. Please ask me to carry your bags next time you go somewhere sunny?