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NETWORKING executives view advanced wireless technologies such as 5G and Wi-Fi 6 as a force multiplier for other innovative technologies—including AI, IoT, cloud, and edge computing—and as being foundational to transforming their enterprises and industries. This is one of the key findings of a recent study conducted by Deloitte on advanced wireless connectivity. To better understand how enterprises are approaching adoption of these technologies, we surveyed 415 US-based networking executives who have plans to adopt 5G and/or Wi-Fi 6 (see sidebar, “Methodology”). This report presents the perspectives of these networking leaders and provides insight into how and why organizations plan to adopt advanced wireless.

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Advanced wireless technologies will likely become an essential part of the fabric that links billions of devices, machines, and people in the hyperconnected era. They promise dramatic performance improvements—such as faster speeds, increased data capacity, lower latency, greater device density, and precise location sensing—that make wireless an attractive alternative to wireline networks for heavy-bandwidth, time-sensitive needs. Many organizations are shifting to advanced wireless to enable innovation and gain competitive advantage. Indeed, many networking executives view these technologies as increasingly critical to their enterprise success, and business leaders are joining IT leaders to drive adoption. It is telling that networking executives don’t view 5G and Wi-Fi 6 as incremental improvements to previous generations of wireless, but as a significant opportunity to transform how their enterprises operate, as well as the products and services they offer. Remarkably, 86% of networking executives surveyed believe that advanced wireless will transform their organization within three years, and 79% say the same about their industry.

As the next-gen wireless future rapidly becomes a reality, with pilots and active experimentation underway, carriers and enterprises alike should decide how to participate in the evolving ecosystem. Each generational advance in wireless connectivity introduced new market entrants that disrupted traditional players to capture the bulk of incremental value creation. With 3G, device-makers displaced the carrier’s lock on the end customer. With the advent of 4G, enterprise mobile apps and cloud platforms grabbed a significant share in a growing market, creating a whole new ecosystem of software players. If history is any guide, 5G is also poised to shake up the wireless ecosystem—particularly in the enterprise market—and participants should carefully consider how they can capture and offer value. The executives we surveyed report that they engage with a wide variety of providers and are very willing to reconsider these relationships in their migration to advanced wireless.