Wireless is evolving from a communications technology to an innovation platform

It is now necessary to expand digital services to a wide range of new contexts and customers to realize the full value of wireless technologies. Wireless value realization is the variety of ways that next-generation wireless technologies will soon deliver new and improved services and lower capital costs.

Wireless value realization aims to seize the opportunity that the 18 billion edge/IoT devices present and expand it to new services and innovation. By 2025, 50% of enterprise wireless endpoints, up from less than 15% today, are predicted to use networking services that offer features beyond communication.

For instance, wireless technology can be used to find assets, sense the environment, provide power where it was previously unavailable, and locate people in need in addition to being a multi-technology medium. Wireless technology can monitor staff to create a safer environment or maximize the movement of important assets.

What does the wireless future hold?

As wireless technology continues to advance in areas like bandwidth and range as well as power consumption, a new trend called wireless value realization is expanding the use cases that take advantage of these developments.

Two main trends are driving the development of wireless technology. First, as wireless fundamental communication abilities advance, a much wider range of tasks are made possible than in the past. Second, wireless is expanding beyond simple connectivity to include features that lay the groundwork for future digital innovation in fields like:

Location tracking: Most widely used wireless technologies can detect the location of connected endpoints.

Radar sensing: Numerous wireless networking systems are deployable with radar-like services, in which the location of an endpoint communicating with the network is determined.

Value-added services: Technologies, such as Wi-Fi and cellular, are gaining various value-added services, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications, broadcast, multicast, and media-specific features, opening up new wireless use cases.

Improved ubiquity: Especially with cellular rollouts and new constellations of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites are bringing internet and IoT connectivity to previously unconnected areas.

Ultra-low-power wireless systems: Bluetooth and NFC are two examples of protocols that can now operate without batteries thanks to wireless energy harvesting. This will make it possible to track and tag things in new ways.

Wireless is evolving from a communications technology to a more comprehensive digital innovation platform due to these areas of advancement. Technology executives must prepare for a future where more wireless capabilities, protocols, and usage will support digital business.

The gateway for new services and innovation

Organizations must adapt to different contexts and use multiple wireless technologies to provide connectivity, reliability, and services. New sensing, location tracking, and even energy harvesting features are included in the roadmaps for popular wireless technologies like 5G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, among others.

Next-generation wireless capabilities will increase the potential for business disruption and offer new digital services beyond connectivity, such as sensing, application services, power supply, and integrated processing, to a wide range of new contexts and users. The combination of various wireless technologies will result in a technical foundation that is more affordable, dependable, and scalable while also requiring less capital investment.

As responsibilities for enterprise networks change, applications and organizational transformation drive the realization of wireless value. This trend accelerates the pace of digital transformation by incorporating tools and resources that deliver the data essential to crucial business outcomes. Users will gain from reduced risk, cost optimization, connectivity compliance, and improved developer and customer value propositions.