Going the extra mile in connectivity

Ireland has made significant strides in fast connectivity, yet the crucial part is the last mile, which is the connection between a premise and the rest of the network.

Usually, this is fixed by fibre optic or copper cables, but a strong contender is 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA). What started as an option existing alongside traditional options have turned into a fully-fledged solution that can amplify a company’s operations through its flexibility and strength.

To highlight this, global technology intelligence firm ABI Research forecasts that by 2026, the FWA market will exceed 180 million subscriptions and generate $70 billion in revenue.

With Amárach Research describing 5G as “an essential component of the national infrastructure and will facilitate economic growth”, the groundwork for facilitating that has been done by companies like Three Ireland, where it has over 90 per cent 5G population coverage.

For Karl Duffy, the head of enterprise and public sector for Three Ireland, it’s a significant growth area in the B2B field, especially for customers who see the higher speeds from 5G compared to other methods.

“We’re seeing businesses who want high-quality connections with reliability and consistency from a trusted brand such as Three,” he explained. “Our FWA base is growing over 200 percent year-on-year… and we have customers who just fundamentally see 5G FWA as a better solution.”

“It’s not always where fibre isn’t available or too expensive; it’s just better.”

Some of the immediate examples of FWA are hard-to-reach locations, large dispersed sites like ports, and primary or secondary links so there’s failover.

More importantly, 5G FWA is operating as a true alternative to fixed infrastructure, with many organisations availing.

We were able to turn this around in two days, and the feedback has been brilliant

A perfect example of this was Three Ireland’s recent work with Galway University. It serves over 19,000 students and 2,600 staff and links to 1,380 universities across the world, meaning connectivity is a must.

As a result, Galway University required an extra layer of secure connectivity to help with its fixed line WiFi. Within two days of the first phone call, the new wireless 5G broadband service was up and running, giving additional network capacity and resilience to its WiFi network.

“When we got their original phone call, it was very much a case of we need your help, and we need it quickly,” explained Duffy.

“We were able to turn this around in two days, and the feedback has been brilliant. It’s become complementary, and what we see is that a lot of users on the network will ebb and flow seamlessly between 5G FWA and fixed WiFi.”

Another example of its work was with Gourmet Food Parlour, which has four restaurants in Dublin and one in Galway. It faced a challenge in keeping staff and customers connected, be it for bookings, staff sorting through queries or experiencing lag in areas like instant messaging.

After conducting surveys and analysing data, Three Ireland set up a 5G FWA connection, which allowed its locations to connect across multiple sites and scale up or down as needed.

The final case study Duffy mentions, is Ardmac, which has been at the forefront of digitalisation in the construction industry.

As it’s reliant on digital applications such as the Building Information Management (BIM) system, having access to high-quality connections even in rugged, remote, and hard-to-reach sites was crucial.

5G FWA allows Ardmac to take high-speed, stable, quality connections anywhere they go, allowing it to cater for large numbers on-site as well as individuals or smaller teams. It’s something that enables them to try new things.

5G underpins all that connectivity so Ardmac can go to a site now with 5G in a box, and try something with a 3D camera, a new innovation, or a new idea. It opens up all sorts of possibilities.

Duffy adds: “They’re an excellent example of a large organisation that’s on an advanced digital journey. As and when our network expands, Ardmac and many other customers are taking more of the solutions from it, which is a great result.”

It’s an exciting time for the space, and that’s before we get into areas like 5G Standalone (5GSA), which brings in entirely new benefits. Three Ireland recently launched 5GSA on a trial basis and is working on new use cases in partnership with Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) in Athlone to explore and bring its capabilities to life.

For example, the first full 5G SA Voice call was completed of any operator in Ireland in April, proving yet again Three’s desire to be first to market with new technologies for its customers. Applications are getting bigger and bigger, and industries are busy developing the next generation of applications that will push mobility and mobile capabilities to their limits.

Areas like AI and large language models will be pushed to the forefront, and those faster speeds will be required for these services to be properly utilised.

“We’re not too far away where 4G just won’t be fast enough,” stated Duffy. “I often liken it to if you dropped to 3G today; it’s a frustrating experience as all your applications are designed for 4G.

“But in the future, they’ll be designed for 5G, where a 4G experience would then be very frustrating. It won’t be too long before 5G becomes the standard.”

Visit three.ie/business for more information.