5G: What you need to know about the future of business VoIP systems

Posted on Monday May 23, 2022

Fifth generation technology, or 5G, will significantly enhance the performance of your business's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. That's because 5G networks have much higher speeds, greater capacity, and reduced latency than 4G LTE networks. This means that businesses can enjoy crystal-clear voice quality and low call latency no matter what device or where they make calls. Here are three ways to take advantage of 5G for your VoIP system.

Explore VR and AR

With 5G network speeds, virtual and augmented reality can become more common for many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). 5G easily surpasses 4G’s Gbps (gigabits per second) limit, which is currently holding back businesses' adoption of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications.

VR and AR need to process significantly more data because of the visuals they must process as users move, and this puts an enormous strain on mobile networks. 5G is set to ensure a better user experience by facilitating smoother connections and preventing network delays that can affect your bottom line.

Improved video conferencing

One of the major hindrances to smooth web and video conferencing is slow network data transfer. Fortunately, innovations like Web Real-Time Communication and 5G networks can enhance VoIP for businesses by providing open and stable streaming as well as sufficient transfer speeds. These will allow businesses to view higher-quality videos, even those at 4K and 8K resolution.

Beyond improved streaming quality, 5G networks will also be able to support video calls with a larger number of participants, which is timely, considering the current shift to remote working.

Utilize mobile VoIP

VoIP calls heavily rely on sufficient download and upload speeds. For example, mobile VoIP users may experience unstable and poor call connectivity and clarity when their 4G networks are limited to 12 Mbps upload and 2 Mbps download speeds. These limitations could also lead to packet loss. Packet loss happens when one or more “packets” of data traveling across a computer network fail to reach their destination, which is typically caused by network congestion. Packet loss reduces audio/video quality and can even cause calls to be dropped, leading to a poor VoIP experience. But thanks to 5G’s greater speed, packet loss can be prevented.

Moreover, 4G network providers set a fixed amount of bandwidth for every direction it transmits a signal to. But unlike 4G, the 5G bandwidth can be adjusted on the fly. This means that 5G network providers can allocate bandwidth to mitigate congestion. In practical terms, businesses could reach their customers even if the latter are in crowded places that normally max out 4G mobile network capacity constraints, like in football stadiums or airports.

When your business decides to adopt the up-and-coming 5G network, you can expect to see significant VoIP improvements. If you’re looking to set up a VoIP system for your business, call or email us today.