MulteFire is Part of the Next Big Trend: Enterprise Rather than Consumer Use Cases Drive Growth

For many, it will be hard to envision why private Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) networks such as might be so important in the coming 5G era. MulteFire is based on use of shared spectrum or possibly unlicensed spectrum to create private networks akin to Wi-Fi.

And that is the key to understanding MulteFire. As has been the case for all local area networking platforms, cabled networks and then Wi-Fi have been used to support enterprise networks for many decades.

So think of MulteFire as the next generation of networks to support enterprise private networks, not for voice but for computing devices. In other words, MulteFire (a private LTE network) will be valuable for many enterprise use cases not to support on-premises voice, but to support on-premises computing apps. Again, think about the way Wi-Fi has been used.

We are accustomed to thinking about 4G LTE as a wide area network platform. Using MulteFire, 4G LTE becomes a substitute for Wi-Fi, especially to support growing internet of things networks and sensors.

source: Nokia

Use of MulteFire is, in many ways, but one manifestation of another trend in the coming 5G era, namely the switch from revenue growth based on consumer apps (human users of mobile devices and bandwidth) to industrial and enterprise-driven use cases and revenue.

And bandwidth, per se, is less a driver than the need for latency-controlled, quality of service controlled networks to support enterprise use cases. MulteFire will be a more-compelling platform for enterprise apps and use cases where it is latency that really matters, not bandwidth, even if bandwidth also will be important.

To the extent that latency is about delay, and therefore about “time,” the next era’s platforms will present opportunities around apps and use cases where latency assurance underpins the value of communications.