Putting the (5)G in Franchising

Successful franchisors and franchisees alike understand how leveraging technology can benefit a business, from improving profitability to streamlining operations. While it’s true franchises rely on a system blueprint that all parties need to follow in order to ensure success, underlying business processes can be augmented to create a bigger, stronger, faster franchise.

With that in mind, industry professionals may want to keep their eyes on the horizon, as the future of mobile technology may be about to shake things up.

Writing for re/code, Bonnie Cha broke down what consumers can expect from the fifth generation of wireless networks, aka 5G technology. Based on interviews with various industry insiders, Cha stated that 5G will offer much faster downloading speeds, significantly reduced times for devices to send and receive data and a vastly increased capacity for connected devices to interact.

This may not sound like game-changing advancement on the surface (no hoverboards quite yet), but when compared to current technology, it’s easy to see the potential. For instance, Cha said that downloading an eight gigabyte HD movie on a mobile phone took more than an hour with a 3G network. Using a current 4G network, the same process would take only seven minutes. However, a 5G network would be able to accomplish the download in a super-fast six seconds.

This technology also has many potential applications in the world of automated processes, from equipment that can be programmed to communicate with other machines without human input to simpler remote-control functionality.

While Cha reported that commercial 5G networks are still a ways off, this technology could be in use within the next five years.

How 5G will ultimately impact the franchising world remains to be seen, but if history is any indication, a leap in mobile technology could mean big changes in everything from how franchises are operated to the ways in which consumers interact with their favorite brands.