How Service Providers Support 5G.

We’ve been hearing about 5G for a couple of years now, but all of the mechanisms are finally coming together to make 5G a reality. The larger providers are now 5G ready and devices like the new iPhone have the 5G radio.

Rural service providers are going to continue to see an increased demand for bandwidth as well as an influx of 5G traffic on their networks.

Rural residents want to stream services just like their urban counterparts. They will also begin purchasing the newest 5G devices. Without an updated infrastructure, the network will become increasingly slow and outdated.

Not only do you want to keep loyal customers and competitors at bay, but Tier 1 service providers are going to want to serve those residents. This gives you opportunity for contracts to backhaul the data.

How will rural service providers enhance their networks to not only maintain service level agreements but be viable backhaul partners for Tier 1 service providers?

Here’s what we recommend.

How Service Providers Support 5G: Build a Roadmap That Meets Upcoming Demands

You need to have a road map for how to meet these upcoming demands. Otherwise, you’ll miss opportunity for contracts and have more issues with the network as residents start to consume 5G content. We don’t know what that content is going to be yet, but more bandwidth will be needed in the same way streaming services took off in the 2000s and quickly demanded more bandwidth.

How Service Providers Support 5G: Watch for Government Grants

These upcoming years (2021 and 2022) are not typical refresh years where the focus is on more speed and bandwidth. You want to upgrade with 5G capabilities.

Watch for government grants because funds tend to be made available during technology evolutions. 5G will soon become one of these universal services that the US government will help make possible across the nation.

How Service Providers Support 5G: Invest in a Scalable Technology

What is your technology stack and how much flexibility do you have to scale? Being at the front-end of this technology revolution, service providers need to build as demand builds. Its paramount to be able to size your core network infrastructure with as much flexibility as possible.

Whether you have a refresh coming up soon or not, plan to update core infrastructure for 5G capabilities and expect significant increases in carrier type customers. Then start solving for the outer network layers.

If you haven’t, we highly recommend you learn more about the preferred network infrastructure manufacturer for service providers. We’ll have to go more into why Juniper Networks for service providers in another post, but know that it can help you scale quickly without a large capital expense on the front end. That’s one of the points that attracts our service provider clients to Juniper. They don’t have to build out a 200G network right now. They can build what they need, when the need it on their current network investments.  Now that Juniper Networks integrated its entire portfolio into an artificial intelligence engine, network management is simpler than ever. You can read more about it in Gartner.

Recommended Reading: Why the Disruption in Gartner’s Wired and Wireless Magic Quadrant?

While Juniper Networks makes sense for most service providers, we are technology agnostic and can help provide solutions for your network beyond just Juniper. Expertise in service provider network operations ranging from IP address management to DDoS mitigation make EdgeTeam relevant beyond the network infrastructure.

How Service Providers Support 5G: Find an IT Solutions Partner with Service Provider Experience

It’s very important to work with an IT partner that has experience in your industry. We have a full article on why you need an IT solution provider and how to choose one.

Recommended Reading: Why Companies Need an IT Solution Provider and How to Choose One

As you know, the service provider space is quite different from other industries. Building and managing IT networks is not a job any IT professional can start serving. There’s a long learning curve.

We worked with service providers before founding EdgeTeam, and majority of EdgeTeam’s clientele are tier 2 and 3 service providers.

How Service Providers Support 5G: Next Steps

Reach out to EdgeTeam so we can get to know each other and begin helping you plan for your network’s upcoming demands.

Don’t wait until you have a purchase in mind. We want to be a true IT solution partner that helps from building your road map, researching and selecting the technology to procuring the technology.

Recommended Reading: 6 Services That Distinguish IT Solution Partners from IT Resellers

Call us at 817-953-2750 or submit the contact form.

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This post is brought to you by  Juniper