The short version
A line in a franchise fit-out checklist or a head-office IT policy that says “install 5G failover” or “backup link required at every site” is short, but it usually stands for four things:
- A second internet service that reaches the internet by a different path from the main one.
- Automatic switchover, with nobody in the store touching anything.
- Monitoring, so head office knows when a store is on backup and when the backup itself is broken.
- Proof that it works: test records, alerts and a diagram.
A business 5G service on a router or firewall that supports failover meets most of these policies at the lowest cost. It falls short where mobile signal in the tenancy is poor, where the policy asks for something 5G cannot give, or where nobody keeps the evidence.
Do not guess the requirement. Every franchisor writes their own, and they differ. Ask for the full technical specification, not the one-line checklist item, and design to what it says.
What is actually in a franchise “5G failover” requirement?
We are not going to describe any particular franchisor’s specification, because they vary and change. These are the items we see in this kind of requirement, and the questions to ask when the checklist does not spell them out.
| Item in the spec | What it usually means | Question to ask head office |
|---|---|---|
| Backup or secondary link | A second internet service | Must it be 4G/5G, or is any second service acceptable? |
| Diverse carrier or network | The backup must not rely on the same provider or path | Is a different carrier required, or only a different technology? |
| Automatic failover | The router switches without staff action | Is there a maximum switchover time? |
| Minimum backup speed | The backup must carry POS, EFTPOS and phones | What speed, measured where and when? |
| Approved hardware | A specific router, firewall or managed service | Is the hardware supplied by head office, or chosen locally? |
| Monitoring and alerting | Someone is told when the store fails over | Who receives alerts, and does head office need access? |
| Testing | Failover is tested at opening and on a schedule | How often, and in what format should results be kept? |
| Payment network separation | Card systems isolated from other traffic | Does the backup path need to meet the same rules? |
If the spec specifies a router or managed service from a head-office supplier, your job may be limited to cabling, power, an antenna and a SIM. Find that out before you buy anything.
The fitout checklist says install 5G failover and I don’t know what it means
Short answer: the store needs a second internet connection over the mobile network, and a router that moves traffic to it automatically when the main NBN or fibre service drops. The retail store fit-out technology checklist covers that basic meaning and where it sits in the fit-out programme.
What the one-liner leaves out is the work to make it real:
- A signal survey where the equipment sits. Not at the shopfront. Stores at the back of a centre, below ground or under a steel roof can have poor indoor coverage. Test each carrier at the comms cabinet at a busy trading time.
- An external antenna if signal is marginal. In a shopping centre that can need the centre’s approval for the cable route and the mounting point, so ask early.
- A business 5G plan on a different network or path from the fixed service, sized for POS, EFTPOS, phones and little else. Business 5G internet covers choosing it.
- A router or firewall that supports dual-WAN failover, with health checks set sensibly and traffic rules so guest Wi-Fi and backups do not swamp the backup link.
- Power. A small UPS for the modem, router and switch. Failover does nothing if the comms cabinet loses power.
- A test before opening, with a real card transaction over the backup link.
Head office mandated a backup link at every branch. Is 5G the cheapest compliant option?
Usually, yes. A second fixed service often enters the building through the same pit and pathway as the first, so a single cable cut can take both out, and it carries its own connection costs and contract term. A 5G service needs no building works beyond an antenna, can be in place in days and uses a different physical network.
It stops being the cheapest compliant option when:
- Indoor signal is poor and an antenna cannot be fitted. Some centres will not approve an external antenna or a cable run to the roof.
- The policy sets a minimum backup speed that 5G at that address cannot sustain at busy times.
- The policy requires a different carrier and only one network has usable coverage at the store.
- The store’s normal traffic is heavy, such as a site that streams camera footage or runs large uploads, and the policy expects the backup to carry it.
In those cases the options are a second fixed service with verified path diversity, a satellite service, or a written exception from head office. Rolling out networks across a retail chain covers how a group builds failover into a standard store template.
When head office mandates redundancy, does a 5G backup satisfy the auditors?
An auditor checks evidence against the policy, not the hardware. A 5G SIM sitting in a router satisfies nobody if there is no proof it takes over. What usually satisfies an internal or franchise auditor:
- A network diagram showing both services, the router and where card systems connect.
- Service details: provider, service ID and SIM number for each link, and the plan.
- Failover configuration: a screenshot or export showing failover enabled and the health-check settings.
- Dated test records: when the primary was disconnected, how long the switch took, what was tested (a card transaction, a phone call, the POS), and when the primary was restored.
- Alert history: proof that head office or the support provider was notified when the store failed over.
- A schedule: how often failover is tested, and who does it.
Keep these in a place head office controls, not on the store PC. For a chain, the same records for every store, in the same format, make an audit a matter of pulling files rather than visiting sites. 5G failover: how it switches and how to test it sets out a test plan that produces exactly this record without risking a trading day.
Does PCI DSS require a backup link?
No. PCI DSS v4.0.1, the card industry’s security standard, does not require a backup internet connection. The closest it comes is requirement 12.10.1, which asks for business recovery and continuity procedures in the incident response plan. A backup-link rule comes from the franchisor or head office, not from PCI.
What PCI DSS does care about is how the backup link is secured once card data can pass over it. The parts that matter for a 5G backup:
- Cellular is an untrusted network. The standard lists “carrier networks (such as cellular)” among untrusted networks, the same as the internet. Requirement 1.4.1 calls for network security controls, in practice a firewall, between trusted and untrusted networks. The 5G link needs the same firewall rules as the fixed line.
- It belongs on the network diagram. Requirement 1.2.3 asks for an accurate diagram of all connections between the card environment and other networks. A backup link that is missing from it is a finding waiting to happen.
- Firewall rules get reviewed. Requirement 1.2.7 asks for network security control configurations to be reviewed at least every six months.
- Segmentation gets tested. If the store uses segmentation to keep card systems separate and shrink the scope of PCI, requirement 11.4.5 calls for testing it at least every 12 months and after changes to it. Adding a backup path is a change worth checking.
Which of these apply to your store depends on how card payments are taken and what your acquiring bank asks you to complete each year. Standalone bank terminals that encrypt card data themselves can keep much of the store network out of scope, depending on the solution. Integrated POS systems tend to bring more of it in. Ask your payment provider, and design the backup to the same standard as the primary.
Will EFTPOS keep working on the backup link?
It depends on the terminal. Several Australian terminals have their own mobile connection:
- Tyro’s Pro Key user guide says the terminal “will attempt to automatically switch over to the mobile network if it is unable to connect to WiFi or Ethernet”.
- CommBank lists its Smart terminal with “Wi-Fi & 4G connection” and dual SIM.
- Westpac says its EFTPOS Connect terminal “will automatically switch to the 4G mobile network as back-up” during an outage.
If the bank cannot be reached at all, some terminals switch to Electronic Fall Back mode and keep processing up to set limits, but Westpac notes that transactions over those limits cannot be processed. Treat that as a last resort, not a plan.
Terminals with their own mobile fallback reduce the risk to card payments, but they do not keep the POS, stock system, online orders or phones running. That is what the store’s backup link is for. Integrated terminals that talk to the POS over the store network also need the store network to be up.
Our shop’s internet went down and we couldn’t take card payments. Where do we start with a 5G backup?
Start with how your EFTPOS terminals connect. Some terminals have their own mobile connection or fall back to one when the store network drops, and some rely entirely on the store’s internet. Ask your payment provider which yours does. If the terminals already have their own fallback, the backup link is mainly for the POS, the phones and anything else that stopped. If they do not, the backup link is what keeps card payments running.
Then, in order:
- List what must keep working during an outage. Usually EFTPOS, the POS, phones and maybe the booking system. Guest Wi-Fi and camera uploads can wait.
- Check mobile signal at the comms cabinet, on more than one network, at a busy time of day.
- Choose the backup service on the network that is strongest at the store and, ideally, independent of your fixed provider.
- Fit a router or firewall that does automatic failover, if the current one does not. Many ISP-supplied modems cannot.
- Put the router, modem and switch on a UPS.
- Test it with a real transaction before you rely on it, and again every few months.
A franchisee with a head-office spec should follow the spec first. An independent shop can follow the same steps without the paperwork, though the test record is still worth keeping.
How Kookaburra Comms can help
Kookaburra Comms works to franchisor and head-office specifications on retail fit-outs across Melbourne and Victoria. We survey signal at the store, arrange the fixed service and the 5G backup across carriers, install the router, antenna and UPS, run the failover test with a real transaction and hand over the records an auditor will ask for. For a group, business internet covers qualifying every branch, and managed services covers monitoring and scheduled tests once stores are trading. Send us the spec and the store address and we will tell you what the site needs to comply.