How can 4G WAN help your business to grow?

4G WAN help your business to grow

You may just associate 4G with checking social media on the train, or watching a quick video when you don’t have Wi-Fi access. But did you know that using only a few 4G SIM cards can help to grow your business?

Businesses ranging from small operations to massive corporations are beginning to embrace the opportunities made available through the use of these little cards, using them in a multitude of different ways to optimise and streamline their operations.

Understanding the history of 4G

While 4G is a relatively recent development in the history of communication, it’s useful to look at the beginnings of cellular communication to understand how its current iteration can be useful to your business.

The first analogue radio telecommunications networks were established in the 1980s, providing what is now referred to as the humble 1G. They worked fine for the time period, but only allowed for voice to be transmitted, and quickly became obsolete with further innovations. Enter the 2G of the 1990s – networks capable of sending small packets of data alongside the voice transmission, allowing for pieces of data that we now take for granted like SMS and caller display to be used.

3G is what truly established the era of mobile internet that we now use in our everyday lives, allowing consumers to use IT features that previously only could have been accessed from a home or office PC. It wasn’t the quickest, but the added mobility meant that users started to become hooked on on-the-go internet access.

This leads us to the introduction of 4G in 2008, which created a whole new generation of people who primarily accessed the internet from phones and other mobile devices – something that was a pipe dream back in the 1980s. It built upon the existing speed of 3G, altering how data was compressed, and allowing for far more data to be sent at one time.

How can you use one 4G connection?

You may find that on your own phone, downloading a song, browsing the news, or even watching a video works perfectly well with 4G. Does that mean that connecting your phone and using it as an internet entry point for your network is possible?

Unfortunately, this isn’t quite possible on just one connection. The huge amount of data that would be needed by a business network would immediately slow down the connection to the point where it would be functionally useless. So if you want to embrace 4G, you’re going to need to go further.

Using a 4G router

So if one SIM isn’t enough, how many would you need to support a business? Even if you went into double digits, you’d need something to unify their connections in order to truly benefit from 4G. Luckily, such a product exists: a 4G router.

While some are designed for a single SIM, which won’t go far in supporting your network, many more are designed with businesses in mind, making the most of the multiple SIMs they combine.

Such a router has multiple slots to accommodate multiple SIMs, combining their cellular connections when inserted. This provides a far more secure and fast connection, effectively multiplying the performance of a single SIM by however many you choose to install.

You can even bond SIMs that are supported by different network providers – this provides a fantastic level of reliability, as issues with one network can be easily made up by the other functioning SIMs.

Growing your business with 4G

Your business is unique – and therefore, you’d likely to have a huge number of questions for any provider looking to bring 4G into your network. However, whatever variety of 4G router and network design you choose to utilise, you can be sure that embracing 4G will give your business a technological edge in a market where IT efficiency is not only beneficial, but vital to survival.

By making your network mobile, you’re greatly increasing the agility of your business, and opening yourself up to a range of new opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be available. Businesses that embrace the potential of 4G often discover its functionality in the following scenarios:

• Opening your first office

As any business owner knows, getting started at your first location is an enormous amount of work, even before you’ve began to consider how your internet connection will be established. Unfortunately, waiting for a fixed line from a provider can take months – by using a 4G WAN, your network can be up and running in a matter of days, meaning that weeks of potential waiting can be put to far more effective use.

• Branching out to additional locations

Even once your business is well-established and you’re considering opening an extra branch, you may run into many of the same issues that came up when opening your first premises. Once again, the costs associated with installing a new network or dealing with providers can be circumvented by the use of a 4G WAN, dodging issues that other businesses might face.

• Hiring off-site employees

Of course, many businesses don’t necessarily use a physical location, and therefore may be hiring employees that don’t operate from a fixed place – sales people, consultants and technicians, for instance. By providing them with a business grade 4G router, you ensure that they’ll always be in touch, and can provide a high level of service no matter where they’re located.

• Using your network anywhere

If your business requires working at a clients location, but you’d rather not rely on their less than stellar network connection, a 4G router can guarantee the same efficiency possible at your own office, regardless of where you might be, so you can deliver a quality service.

Be on the cutting edge

So if you’re looking to grow your business, or even just wanting a temporary network solution, 4G is a fantastic option – especially as most 4G routers currently available are built with forward 5G compatibility. By investing in a 4G router, you’re investing in the future of your business, and placing yourself and your business on the cutting edge of business growth and networking tech.