5G, The Next Big Thing?
What is that one thing that can never satisfy us?
Internet speed.
How many times have you complained about your internet speed? Whether it’s, “why does it take forever for this website to open?”, “why is my game latency so high?” or “why does it take four hours to download this two hour movie?”, slow internet is frustrating.Yes, slow internet is frustrating. Living in the fast-paced year of 2018, people no longer have the patience nor time to wait for the internet. We are no longer satisfied with units like kilobytes like we were in 2005. Instead, it has become a never-ending search for the “faster than the fastest”. Back in the “glorious” 3G era, you could barely send a picture whereas now, you can probably watch the Warriors versus Cavaliers on Youtube using 4G when the signal is good. But what’s next? Yes, you probably guessed it — 5G, a.k.a, the fifth-generation mobile communications.
In theory, 5G networks are expected to carry a 20 Gbps peak download rate and as low as four milliseconds of latency. Right now, the best 4G LTE technology we have for commercial use only allows about 50 Mbps and 60 milliseconds latency. However, average households do not care about numbers - they care about user experiences. To put it in real world context, people can expect results as great as a family of four watching 4K 3D Netflix on their own, download every single tweet ever existed in a matter of minutes, and other astonishing stuff like this. Recently, American carrier Verizon launched its first ever 5G “wireless broadband” in selected homes in cities like Los Angeles and Houston. Even though the Verizon version of 5G is premature and likely to differ largely from the true “5G” in the future, the company still promised internet speed options ranging from 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps. This is an exciting start.
Companies like Huawei and ZTE have also been actively researching and developing 5G technology. They are working with the South Korean big-three, that is: SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+ on implementing the technology for in Korea. Korea is likely to be the first country to have its common application of 5G in 2019. China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunication company, has already built thousands of 5G service stations across China for its wider application for the public in late 2019. Sadly, Canadian communication companies have not yet confirmed the launch of 5G domestically.
5G is not just a faster version of 4G, it also gives way to many novel technologies, for example: virtual reality and augmented reality. Currently, huge limitations have been put on AR and VR’s products due to 4G’s low bandwidth and high latency. With a 5G network, streaming VR and AR from the internet will no longer be a dream. When the technology is mature, you can use VR to watch sports events as if you are in the stadium or on the court. With AR, you can try on any clothes that you want to buy when using an AR device at home on demand. If you think these are gimmicks, then how about remote controls advanced by 5G. People can control devices in their houses like the AC, lights, and fridges from a large distance using a 5G network that has literally no latency. Moreover, it has made remote surgeries possible. Doctors in Japan can operate a robot in Mexico to do the surgery for them. Autopilot is another technology that can be boosted by 5G. Autonomous driving systems will be allowed to send and receive information about its surroundings at an unprecedented speed, greatly increasing the safety of autopilot systems. Companies like GM, Uber, and Baidu are all largely investing in the field. While this all sounds futuristic, it is all very likely come true as early as 2020 when 5G is fully implemented.
5G sounds like the technology that we would expect to see in sci-fi movies, but normal consumers also care about price and reliability. For mobile 4G, the data price is pretty expensive already anywhere in the world. Say an average data plan has 3 Gigabytes of data per month, 5G network could very easily use up all of that in a matter of seconds if you forget to turn it off while watching a video. It is like getting a sports-car, but the fuel tank only lasts about 20 minutes. At the same time, mobile devices’ batteries will also face a new challenge. When 4G LTE was first introduced, cell phone batteries were devastated by the network service; whether phone manufacturers are ready for this revolution still remains a question. At the same time, companies will have to deal with regulations and make deals on their frequency of operation, which could easily take a very long period of time.