Cellular has inherent advantages over Wi-Fi, including ease of use, reliability and security; but Wi-Fi is still fundamental to enterprise wireless
Cellular vs Wi-Fi—a debate that to technologists is a false dichotomy, but to enterprise buyers can guide technology investment strategies with mixed results. While it’s undeniable that cellular and Wi-Fi are complementary connectivity mediums both with a place in any enterprise wireless strategy, there are myriad of high value use cases that benefit immensely from the ease of use, mobility, reliability and security that cellular does better.
As Nextivity Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Kowal put it in an interview with RCR Wireless News, “A strong, reliable, secure cellular signal inside the building, it’s fundamental to a wireless strategy…It has to be there.”
Comparing cellular and Wi-Fi, Kowal noted that cellular is fundamentally designed to support uninterrupted handoffs for reliable, mobile connectivity; it has also got baked-in tools for interference and traffic management that Wi-Fi does not. The same goes for strong security protocols that would be bolted-on to a Wi-Fi network but are included in any cellular implementation. In terms of ease of use, with cellular a user walks into a building and is connected whereas Wi-Fi would likely require at least a multi-step access and login procedure.
To listen to the full conversation with Kowal, check out the first installment in a four-part podcast series exploring enterprise wireless in the Industry 4.0 era.
Before continuing to discuss the benefits of cellular, Kowal took a moment to call out that just as cellular is better for nomadic, mobile use cases, Wi-Fi is “really good at providing services to fixed assets in the middleprise. Wi-Fi is absolutely a critical part of the wireless strategy of an enterprise…Therefore, you really should deploy both networks and make sure users can seamlessly migrate from one to the other as needed. This unlocks the true value of wireless infrastructure and mobility and all of the advantages that come with it.”
But back to cellular—for enterprises looking to bring Industry 4.0 efficiencies to their business processes, cellular and digital transformation are foundationally intertwined. “Wi-Fi is just not as good at handling mobility as cellular. When you have users that are walking all over a warehouse, for example, in addition to these autonomous vehicles moving goods in the warehouse, you’ve got to ensure that these users are always connected with a highly reliable, quality connection. They cannot have a drop. You cannot risk that.”
In summary, Kowal said Industry 4.0 requires constant wireless connectivity. “When you start using wireless to manage solutions that have to be highly reliable, highly secure, you’re going to have to start to think about private networking. All of those things are inherently built into it.”
For more on enterprise wireless, read the following articles and listen to the linked podcasts:
- The four pillars of an enterprise wireless strategy
- How private cellular networks enable Industry 4.0
- How Nextivity is bringing private LTE to the middleprise
- Understanding enterprise wireless: Part 1—developing a strategy
- Understanding enterprise wireless: Part 2—private networks for Industry 4.0
- Understanding enterprise wireless: Part 4—private cellular in action
