How 5G Will Affect your Network

5G has been in the news again lately because of new 5G wireless systems located close enough to airports to disrupt radio signals from planes in flight. The major carriers have by-and-large upgraded their on-board system to avoid this, but smaller, regional airlines are struggling with the costs. This will be of concern to travelers, but not to 5G users and business networks.

Many of us have had 5G phones, but until the infrastructure is (or was, depending on the area) in place, those phones were operating at a 4G level, but 5G is getting there. We have been hearing about it for a long time, but now all four major Los Angeles carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile) claim to have 5GF availability – but not all areas are covered yet, although the coverage will continue to spread.

Can you get 5G on a computer?

Yes. People tend to think 5G only concerns phones, but 5G is going to revolutionize office network infrastructure for both in-office and remote workers. As early as 2020 major computer manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Lenovo started introducing 5G-enabled computers in anticipation of the widespread availability of 5G.

The broadband capabilities and internet speed provided by 5G will not be usable for old-school computers – any more than it will be usable to 4G smart phone owners.

5G is great news for phone junkies with neck pain from staring down at their mobile screens all day, but this facet of 5G will have a much smaller impact on business than 5G Broadband for the internet. For IT services, the main impact of 5G will be in cybersecurity.

Does 5G have security issues?

While not like opening a ‘can of worms,’ 5G will broaden a network’s attack surface exponentially. The attack surface consists of the total number of access points which can easily become exploitable vulnerabilities to cybercriminals.

According to Forbes’ Vinod Yeruva, “5G’s dynamic software-based systems have far more traffic routing points than the current hardware-based, centralized hub-and-spoke designs that 4G has.” It’s akin to going from going from a steel helmet to a colander for protection.

A good question for your IT support manager – whether internal or outsourced is what preparations they have made in anticipation of widespread 5G availability for business networks (especially your own). If they do not have an answer, you have a problem. For years, good Managed IT Services providers have been studying both the known and the possible effects 5G will have on their clients’ networks.

The main issue is Cybersecurity - with a side order of data storage capacity due to the huge data files which can now be sent with ease. There is a lot we do not know about unforeseen complications that 5G will bring. 5G has yet to redefine the vulnerabilities associated with security threats – such as privacy, security, and trust. It is still uncertain how the platform will protect its users with the quantum leap in the amount of data that will be traveling through cyberspace.

Cybercrime and fraud are expected to rise even more dramatically than they have since the advent of COVID and the transition to a much larger remote workforce. If you have quality IT support, they are ready for it – with mechanisms in place for the event that an end-user clicks on a malicious link or attachment in a phishing email.

This is all the more reason for every business to institute Security Awareness Training – since human error is responsible for over 90% of successful cyber-attack intrusions. No matter how good your IT services or the defenses they set up are, they can never stop an employee from clicking on something they shouldn’t.

Health Concerns

Is 5G safe? That’s the fundamental question: This has been the subject of debate for decades – ever since the first cell towers appeared. The debate isn’t about the towers, but about the invisible energy fields that emanate from them: EMFs.

What is EMF in simple words?

‘Electric and Magnetic Fields’ - the original term - has evolved into the more commonly used ‘Electro-Magnetic Fields,’ but no matter what you call it, the undeniable fact is that it’s radiation. We all know that radiation is essentially bad for you, but the question what level we can tolerate.

According to Healthline, most of the limited studies performed to examine any potential health dangers from EMFs have been described as ‘inconclusive’. In their conclusion, they state: “Currently, there’s no solid evidence that 5G causes negative health effects in humans or animals. Most researchers have studied EMFs in general and found mixed results.”

Just how much comfort can you take from that? 5G towers are going up everywhere, affecting all of us one way or another, and the best we can get are ‘mixed results?’ The same fears were going around at advent of the microwave oven, so perhaps it offers a small measure of comforting that after 60+ years, nobody has died from a microwave oven – unless it dropped on their head (no known cases of that, either).

It is surprising how few studies have been done about the potential effects of 5G, which can use both high and low frequencies. The smart money in the scientific community is that it will be predominantly high frequency, which harbors the possibility of more harmful effects.

According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the public is casually exposed to very low frequencies of EMFs from a variety of technologies - levels deemed too low to cause considerable tissue heating or other concerns, such as cognitive loss or cancer.

As with all new or exponentially upgraded technologies, we will have to wait and see.