5G Technology

                                                 5G TECHNOLOGY

 

What is 5G?

Like all “next-generation” wireless network technologies, with 5G your phone will have a faster connection: it will be about 10 times faster than 4G, industry experts anticipate. That's enough to stream an "8K" video or download a 3D movie in 30 seconds. (On 4G, that would take six minutes).

 

The additional capacity will make the service more reliable, allowing more devices to connect to the network simultaneously.

 

But 5G goes far beyond smartphones. Sensors, thermostats, cars, robots, and other new technologies will one day connect to 5G. And today's 4G networks don't have enough bandwidth for the large amount of data that all those devices will transmit.

 

5G networks will also reduce the lag time between devices and the servers with which they communicate to practically zero. In the case of self-driving cars, that means seamless communication between the car, other vehicles, data centers, and external sensors.

 

To achieve all of that, 5G technology will need to travel on very high-frequency radio waves. Higher frequencies have faster speeds and more bandwidth. But, they cannot travel through walls, windows, or roofs, and they become considerably weaker over long distances.

 

This means that wireless companies will need to install thousands - or perhaps millions - of miniature cell phone towers on top of every utility pole, on the sides of buildings, inside every home, and potentially in every room.

 

Hence, 5G will complement 4G, rather than replace it completely. In buildings and in crowded areas, 5G could provide a speed boost. But when you're driving on the highway, 4G might be your only option, at least for a while.

 

Who is building 5G?

The four nationwide cell phone operators in the United States - Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint - are developing and testing 5G network technology. Additionally, chipmakers, including Qualcomm and Intel, are working on processors and radios that enable 5G communications. And major network equipment companies - including Nokia, Ericsson, and Huawei - are building the backbone and equipment to support 5G.

 

Research and development alone is already expensive, but building 5G networks will be extremely expensive, even for an industry used to paying billions of dollars each year in infrastructure costs. Deploying 5G technology across the United States will cost $ 300 billion, according to Barclays.

 

 

The government could spend that amount of money, but it would be very late to the task. In addition, it would have to contract with the network teams and telecommunications companies, which are already building and testing their own networks anyway.

 

A White House official confirmed that a 5G network, as reported by Axios, is part of the government's national security strategy. However, the official pointed out that the memorandum reported by Axios is "outdated" and does not represent "the thinking of the government," before declining to provide further details.

 

When will it arrive?

The wireless industry believes 5G networks to launch in 2020.

 

This month, 5G overcame a significant hurdle when 3GPP, an international wireless consortium, approved a technology standard for next-generation networks. The United Nations International Telecommunications Union is expected to revise the 3GPP standard next year. After that, wireless companies can start buying and selling 5G equipment under the assurance that everything will work together.

 

Meanwhile, Verizon and AT&T have made progress in testing 5G networks. AT&T said it will begin rolling out its 5G network this year, although virtually no one will be able to use it until devices that support that technology hit store shelves. And that is unlikely to happen before 2020.