T-Mobile has unveiled an end-to-end suite of connectivity, compute, devices and applications for the retail industry.

This should mean that businesses no longer have to wade through endless options of technology vendors because the Bellevue, Washington, based company is bringing it all together.

Businesses of all sizes are looking to technology to help them react quickly to changing customer demands, economic uncertainty, tight margins, strained supply chains, and the proliferation of devices outside the enterprise. So, it’s no surprise that manufacturing companies are dedicating 36% of their factory investments towards smart manufacturing, or that North America’s smart retail market is predicted to grow from $7.5bn in 2020 to $20.8bn in 2025.

That’s why T-Mobile is taking the company’s 5G network to the next level with industry specific offerings for retail, manufacturing, logistics and smart cities. With these packages, T-Mobile sources and manages all the connectivity, compute, devices and applications needed from the network core to a heat mapping sensor on the retail floor.

“We are on the precipice of billions of AI-powered devices, all connected by 5G with efficient application processors, all converging to provide intelligent data-driven insights,” said Callie Field, president of T-Mobile’s business group. “Technologies are pushing the limits of most companies’ IT organisations. That’s why we’ve been working closely with many of these organisations to address their unique challenges.”

To deploy the latest retail technology that controls everything from parking space use to asset loss prevention, to temperature monitoring, businesses could have to work with ten or more vendors and partners, which can be time consuming, considering that it takes an average of six months to onboard one vendor.

T-Mobile is simplifying the process by managing all the pieces, so users have only one team and company to provide support and deliver results.

Retailers can get the same kind of data about customers in-store as they do with those online, including capturing foot traffic, dwell time and peak hours. It can also help businesses gauge the effectiveness of marketing efforts such as window merchandising and in-store kiosk displays. This is made possible by industry-specific offerings such as Retail Lite, a retail analytics offering from FastSensor.

There are various connectivity options for lower-latency and higher bandwidth – T-Mobile’s public network, a hybrid mobile network and a private mobile network – with the option to add compute to any of these.

T-Mobile’s business internet is a 5G fixed wireless offering that simplifies connectivity for businesses with multiple retail or office locations nationwide, delivering speed, flexibility, security and cloud-delivered managed services for configuration, monitoring and analytics.

T IoT provides and streamlines global IoT connectivity, platform management and support.

T-Mobile says its experts will be ready to advise at every step in the process, including design, deployment, trouble shooting and ongoing management of the network.