5G for IoT
The future is now – 5G for the Internet of Things
The future is now – 5G for the Internet of Things
5G for IoT
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Challenge:
Replacing damaged components in industrial plants must be done quickly to avoid high costs due to operational downtime. However, because of the shortage of skilled workers, it is often impossible to find a specialized service technician who can arrive promptly and replace the component.
Solution:
With the help of virtual reality goggles, a service technician can assess the damage without being on site. Thanks to the high resolution and three-dimensional rendering made possible by 5G bandwidth, they can get an accurate picture of the plant's layout and the damage. This allows them to guide and advise a less specialized technician on how to replace the component, meaning a replacement part can be installed more quickly and costs can be avoided due to a prolonged downtime.
Challenge:
Surveillance cameras in factories and businesses, in public spaces and at mass events produce extreme amounts of data that must be archived. Frequently, a wired connection is not possible and current wireless networking offers limited bandwidth. As a result, image quality is poor and details such as the features of criminals are often indistinguishable.
Solution:
With 5G, surveillance cameras can be connected wirelessly and with high bandwidth. This means they can be flexibly positioned wherever there is a need. Large amounts of video material can be stored in the cloud via the 5G network – all in the highest quality. Evaluation by artificial intelligence is also possible, which, for example, can automatically detect break-ins.
Challenge:
Electricity is increasingly generated by numerous households and companies that have solar panels or wind turbines, rather than by large-scale power plants. However, their electricity production fluctuates greatly. To keep the power grid stable, we need intelligent steering that knows in real time when, where, and how much power is being produced or consumed.
Solution:
Smart electricity meters networked by 5G provide consumption data without delay. The 5G network also has the capacity to wirelessly connect a large number of electricity meters.
Challenge:
Doctors, therapists, nursing services or pharmacists have only limited capacities and can only be in one place at a time. Especially in rural areas, there is often a shortage of medical professionals.
Solution:
A large part of the tasks in doctors' offices are recurring appointments for chronically ill patients: values have to be checked and a prescription issued. It is not always necessary for the doctor to be on site with the patient. Doctor consultations can be conducted via video call, and medical devices can send their data to the doctor via the Internet. For patients in rural areas with a shortage of doctors, this can be a great relief. Thanks to the low delays of 5G, doctors can even perform operations remotely using a robot.
Challenge:
Farmers need to get an accurate picture of the condition of their crops. Do they have enough fertilizer and water, are they infested with diseases or bugs? But with many acres of fields, getting an overview of crop condition is a difficult task.
Solution:
Camera drones can fly over many acres of fields in a short time. Thanks to 5G, they can send high-resolution images to the cloud. There, an artificial intelligence evaluates the colors of the leaves and immediately notices symptoms of stress in plants. It is also possible to spray the crops in case of pest infestation. The drones also detect fawns lying in the fields and prevent them from being killed by harvesters.
Challenge:
The shortage of skilled workers is a major problem for the construction industry. There is a distinct lack of excavator operators and truck drivers.
Solution:
5G makes it possible for vehicles to remove excavated material autonomously. By having excavators automatically inform the transport vehicles when excavated material needs to be picked up, an optimal workflow is ensured. Especially in mining, where extremely large quantities of spoil have to be removed, autonomous dump trucks and bulldozers can make processes safer and more efficient.
Challenge:
When farmers apply seed, fertilizer, or pesticides to their fields, they drive in adjacent lanes. Doing so, inaccuracies occur, causing plants to be too close together or some areas to receive too much fertilizer and others too little. The shortage of skilled workers is also making itself felt in agriculture. For example, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find trained drivers and skilled workers.
Solution:
Autonomous tractors and combines can be controlled remotely – no skilled workers are needed. What's more, they drive the tracks with centimetre precision. This allows fertilizer and pesticides to be used more efficiently. In addition, because the tractor always travels in exactly the same lanes, less soil area is compacted.
Deutsche Telekom’s 5G network already reaches 98% of the German population – and continues to grow every quarter. No other mobile provider in Germany offers such extensive 5G coverage across the country.
With Deutsche Telekom’s 5G network, your global projects run smoothly. Thanks to 5G roaming in over 90 networks across 51 countries – including the USA, China, South Korea, and France – you benefit from global coverage unmatched by any other European provider.
5G was designed with security in mind. It supports state-of-the-art encryption technologies, enhanced device authentication, and ensures data integrity during transmission. Networks can also be flexibly configured – for example, as private 5G campus networks operated exclusively on-site by businesses. This provides greater control over data flows and protects sensitive information, especially in industries like manufacturing and healthcare.
5G is available in two deployment variants:
5G NSA (Non-Standalone) uses new 5G radio technology combined with the existing 4G core network. It enables higher bandwidths than LTE but comes with limited latency improvements and lacks advanced 5G features.
5G SA (Standalone) relies on a completely new 5G core network. It offers the full benefits of 5G – including ultra-low latency, network slicing, and maximum flexibility. For demanding IoT scenarios like autonomous logistics or industrial automation, 5G SA is the future-proof choice.
Whether existing devices can use 5G depends on their hardware. Many current IoT devices run on LTE (4G) or NB-IoT. To fully leverage 5G, compatible modules are required. However, there's no need to switch immediately: multimode modules and hybrid network solutions support a gradual migration. This allows businesses to get started today while preparing their infrastructure for the future.
Latency refers to the delay in data transmission – the time it takes for a data packet to travel from a device to its destination and back. In 5G networks, latency can drop below 10 milliseconds. This is critical for applications where every millisecond counts – such as connected robots in manufacturing, autonomous vehicles, or AR/VR solutions. Low latency ensures faster response times, greater precision, and therefore higher efficiency and safety in IoT operations.
Network slicing allows a physical 5G network to be divided into multiple virtual networks, or "slices" – each with dedicated performance parameters such as bandwidth, latency, or security. Companies can use customized slices for specific needs such as production control, remote maintenance, or critical infrastructure. The key advantage: slices operate independently and ensure consistent network quality, even when public network usage is high.