Commercial brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield recently issued a briefing in its The Edge magazine that discussed the emergence and importance of 5G communications technology in light of work at home programs in the United States being at all-time highs.

The report noted, “Since employees have proven they can work productively from the comfort of their own homes, they are looking for a reason to return (to the office). 5G can provide the immersive experience employees are not only craving, but will come to expect going forward. And landlords and investors will come to expect 5G to be an essential amenity for tenants.”

C&W’s The Edge magazine talked with 5G experts Andy Brady, vice president, and Debika Bhattacharya, senior vice president, from Verizon; and Rob Franch, chief technology officer from Cushman & Wakefield, to discuss how 5G is performing in the pandemic and how 5G could impact the office of the future.

Verizon’s Brady noted that while most had expected 5G deployment in the United States to slow due to the pandemic, the reverse has happened, noting that it has become much easier to obtain municipal permits. At present, Verizon offers its “5G Ultra-Wideband” service in parts of 60 cities and 5G Nationwide is available in more than 2,700 cities.

Both C&W’s Franch and Verizon’s Bhattacharya contend that 5G will be critical for tenants and landlords in the years to come.

“We are continuing to see more workers being untethered from desks,” Bhattacharya said. “They’re not just on their phones, but working on more complex problems on their tablets in conference or huddle rooms, without having to be at their desks or on their computers. They can do that now because of 5G’s bandwidth and speed. Phone and tablet apps are only going to become more powerful and interactive and with 5G’s promise of faster speeds and higher bandwidths, the opportunity exists for people to do their work on the go.”

Franch added that post pandemic expectations of the workplace are much more than employees working from their desks since people can do the same from the comfort of their own home. He noted that workers are expecting the office experience to be vastly different once they return.

“Historically, for example, conference rooms were where big client meetings would take place in the office, leveraging the latest virtual platforms and technology,” Franch said. “But now, with 5G, employees can collaborate, leveraging these virtual platforms, from almost anywhere in the office—from small huddle rooms to individual offices to large meeting rooms. Having essentially unlimited access to bandwidth and data could lead to more interactive client meetings as well, which should ultimately improve the overall customer experience while cutting down on travel requirements.”

Franch later noted that landlords and investors are increasingly viewing 5G technology as a much have amenity. “We’ve been advising our clients to make sure that they have the technology infrastructure in place to be able to enable 5G and recently we’ve gone a step further, helping tenants to optimize their space for 5G as well.”

To access a copy of the full “Why 5G is more important than ever” report, go to: https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/insights/the-edge/why-5g-is-more-important-than-ever.