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Get Rid of Guest Wi-Fi

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Image: Sasin Paraksa - Alamy Stock Photo

IT network teams in large enterprises spend millions of dollars providing guest Wi-Fi services.  The security, administration, and support of guest Wi-Fi is no longer required now that 5G is everywhere, at a low cost. 

T-Mobile just announced yet another option for a low cost, low power, high speed 5G connection at a upfront cost of $50 and usage at $5/month.  Any smart phone can become a hot spot.  Where 5G coverage is spotty, especially in some concrete buildings, cell boosters near windows are an additional solution that road warriors can use.  Most users are going with unlimited cellular plans, so they do not need to “mooch” off any retailers’ service.

The entire process of finding the guest wi-fi, getting an account, registering, getting an IP address takes upwards of 5 minutes of time, and performance is spotty at best.  Network and security teams must segment the traffic and provide security and usage controls including proxies that filter what sites a user is allowed to access.  Enterprises can also be held liable for what users do on guest Wi-Fi.

As 5G continues to become pervasive, land line networks are only required when large amounts of data need to be transferred, or for applications where every millisecond count.  The best UCaaS solutions are mobile first now, where both your corporate and mobile phone numbers are the same with the mobile number also being the corporate number.  The need for dual routers and landline networks at small office sites also goes away, for if the corporate network goes down, users can use their mobile devices and networks.

For every rule, there is an exception, including this one.  Airplanes, genuinely remote offices, and other locations where 5G is not available will need to keep Guest Wi-Fi.  But for everywhere else, it is no longer required.  Starbucks for example should give up their Wi-fi service, cut their land lines, routers, and firewalls, and go to 5G themselves.