As construction companies look for ways to claw back hours lost during lockdowns, 5G is an opportunity “hiding in plain sight” says Taylor’s Christian Neyle.
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Three key takeaways:
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When it comes to 5G, “we have gone from the speed of a tram to a Japanese bullet train in terms of pace and possibility,” says Neyle, Taylor’s head of information technology.
5G is up to 100 times faster than 4G, working at 10 gigabits per second. This means a high-definition movie that takes seven minutes to download with 4G will take just six seconds with 5G.
Few construction workers are watching movies on site. But 5G’s speed and bandwidth allows “extremely small and portable hardware” – in other words, mobile phones – to make instant changes to drawings, crunch data at an eye-watering rate and track building features and site progression in real time.
Smartphones have already changed the way construction sites operate. One 2020 survey of international construction workers found 92 per cent use their smartphone every day on site.
“Across our job sites, internet connection has become a basic requirement, just like electricity. But securing a strong and effective internet connection remains surprisingly difficult across many sites,” Neyle says.
Construction projects are often “at the mercy” of internet providers and contractors to lay connection cables, which “can take anywhere from six to eight weeks to install.” This has a disproportionate impact on shorter jobs, he notes.
“With 5G, this is no longer the case; gone are the days of waiting for an install and then weeks later recalling to relocate the connection as the job expands and site sheds are required to move. Now we can set and forget, plugging in our 5G routers to bring a connection onsite within minutes.”
Neyle says adopting 5G decreases costs. New routers are “significantly cheaper” than the “multiple networking devices” required in the past. Less complex network infrastructure also reduces the potential points of failure and improves visibility.
5G also “opens doors” by connecting job sites to the Internet of Everything.
“What was once known as the Internet of Things – connecting people to devices for day-to-day convenience – now recognises that, in a world of digital transformation, everything has a digital heartbeat.”
What does the future look like?
Neyle expects every device will be built with internet capabilities. “We could operate a crane or job site from within a remote office, or see a building laid out before us with mixed-reality software, understanding and fixing issues before ground is broken.”
Taylor is already starting to see an impact on the ground. Neyle points to connected contact-tracing lanyards worn by project teams to manage COVID exposure risks and real time IoT building cameras as examples.
“There are few, if any, areas of our business that will remain unaffected by the speed and possibilities of 5G.”
Neyle says every forward-looking construction company – especially those with dynamic sites and using internet-enabled devices – is thinking about 5G.
The full potential of 5G won’t be realised for some years. “It is clear, though, that 5G will improve productivity, safety and compliance and will be a catalyst of continuous improvement and innovation.”