Let’s talk about wireless Internet connections—NBN or 5G, which is better?—and why you may want to go wireless.
5G is a technology that’s coming to Australia, and it is putting through these big bold promises of 400 megabits per second up to 1.4 gigabits per second. That’s four times faster than what the standard NBN connection is promising in Australia.
Take Speed Numbers With a Grain of Salt
5G technology comes with its flaws. When you have an NBN connection in Australia, it’s shared between a few people locally and it’s piped through to your business. If everyone is on the Internet at the same time, everyone’s speed is reduced. That’s why they oversell.
Like in any industry, when you buy a plane ticket, they have already worked out the math that they aren’t going to be having any empty seats because it’s too expensive, so they oversell the plane. They do the same with Internet connections, so most all Internet connections are shared to some degree.
When you have them shared and you’re an industrial estate, it means that when everyone else is on the Internet, your Internet is going marginally slower.
What Happens With Wireless Connections
With 4G, 5G, and any other wireless technologies, speed issues become further complicated because you’re going through a single point that is shared with a lot more people. That means your Internet connection can be reduced down significantly.
Although the theoretical height is better and the speed that you can get is better, the actual coming into the real nitty-gritty numbers means that you probably won’t actually find it’s going to be a big improvement.
Reliability is a huge factor. If you get wind, rain, or any other interference on the network, you will have a reduction in speed if you are a small business that has two to three users.
If you want an expert’s advice on the best internet connection for your business, talk to us!
Think About How Many People Work for You
Consider a wireless option such as 4G or 5G internet connection unless you’re a business that has at least 10 users. Hopefully, you’ve done some research and noticed that the plan said 1.4 gigabits per second but it does 10 gigabits per second. If you are at exactly the right spot at the right time, and you’re standing on one leg and the wind doesn’t move, everything is perfectly identically perfect. But in real-world test case scenarios, the achieved result is at 1.4.
Security Matters
There are a few reasons that having a wireless connection on a mobile network is not good, especially in Australia. On top of the list are IP addresses and locking down security.
4G and 5G connections in Australia do not allow for you to have a static IP address. It is like the postman. When the postman comes to the driveway, knocks on the door, and asks for your signature, you sign it. You look at him, he looks at you and goes, “Yep, I remember you from last time.” Everyone goes about their day. An IP address that’s static works in a similar way.
A dynamic IP address means that your IP address is changing all the time. Imagine you’re a nomad and you’re in your motor home or van, cruising around Australia and seeing all of these cool sites. It’s hard to get mail to you. The postman doesn’t know you that well. However, you still get the mail. That’s fine if you’re just getting the mail, but if you want to get a secure parcel, it might be difficult.
With a static IP address, you can set up rules so that only certain traffic comes from wherever they’re sending it from. It could be your cloud-based application that is industry-specific or your client relationship management citizen.
Our Choice
In Australia, they don’t give static IP addresses for your 4G and 5G connections. For us, we would never be on the dynamic connection where that was the case because it would be terrible. That’s something to take into account when you’re looking at the alternate options that are out there.
For a mobile phone, it’s perfectly fine. There aren’t any problems with that, but most of the time on a mobile phone, you’re not doing any of these big, critical transactions that could be having men-in-the-middle attacks and people snoop on.
5G Pros and Cons
For small to medium enterprises in Australia, your 5G connection could be quicker sometimes. It gives you the flexibility to be anywhere, but it is shared with a lot of people in your local area. So as more and more people who jump on, your internet is going to be slower and slower and will not be giving a consistent quality of service. It’s not going to give you a static IP address.
The costs for the data in Australia is abysmal. It’s ridiculous how much we have to pay for data in Australia. In America, a 4G connection worth $70 lets you transfer as much data as you want. I was transferring from 500 GB to 700 GB each month through my mobile phone and I felt super naughty. In Australia, you’d be spending thousands of dollarydoos to do that. From that perspective, your NBN connections are better for data.
You’re going to get faster speeds sometimes. You’ve got huge flexibility if you need to move a business, where you’re able to get up and work here and know that your Internet connection is going to be very fast. Sometimes you don’t have any other options because NBN relies upon a physical infrastructure layer within your local area so you have to use 4G, a wireless connection.
NBN Pros and Cons
NBN is more reliable. It’s very consistent. It gives you near to unlimited data depending on your plan, which means that you don’t have these anomalies, where one month it might be costing you an arm and a leg and another month it’s not.
NBN gives you the ability to have a static IP address most of the time, which means you can have a secure connection. For business-critical applications that are stored in the cloud, you know for sure that your data is only being seen by you and them.
Because the quality of service is higher, it means that you can more easily know that there’s reliability within the connection. You can have different things that need a high quality of consistent connections, such as VOIP phones. Learn more about our NBN business plan.
Upgrade your business connectivity with NBN today! Explore our tailored NBN business plans and unlock faster, more reliable internet.
The Final Word
In a nutshell, 5G is better than NBN in some aspects but other times NBN is better than 5G. However, it’s your mileage that varies. It just depends on what business you’re in and how you’re going to adapt. For any big business, if you’ve got payroll, you should be having an NBN connection. That’s a physical connection. If you don’t have any other options, jump onto a wireless connection.
