5G – Where We’re At & Where We’re Going

The vision for 5G was started way back in 2015, and we’ve come a long way since then.
This vision promised bigger channels (to speed up data), lower latency (to be more responsive), and the ability to connect a lot more devices at once, to be utilised in a world where everything is “connected”, from watches to glasses, to footwear. VR, AR and IoT were predicted to be at the forefront of 5G services.

Where are we in 2022/2023?

At the time of writing, there are more than 500 million 5G users around the world, supported by 1.5 million base stations and 196 commercial 5G networks.

The UK made an early start, with EE, O2 and Vodafone 5G services now covering most major UK towns, and much of Europe is experiencing a rapid rollout, although despite this, the proportion of connected time spent on 5G in European countries is still low; UK users spent only 4.5 percent of their time on 5G, while the Netherlands had the highest percentage at 13.2 percent.

The European Roundtable of Industrialists has been critical of the deployment pace in Europe, stating in a report released in September 2021 that the installation rate in Europe is only 10 per 1 million people, compared to 1,500 per 1 million in South Korea, and that only 1% of 4G antennas in Europe have been converted to 5G.

What is the future of 5G?

5G is exciting technology with innovative uses. Let’s explore some of them.

Home Internet

Carriers will find it easier to deploy 5G home internet than house-by-house fibre optic cables.
Instead of digging up every street, carriers can simply install fibre optics to a cell site every few miles and then provide wireless modems to customers, so the future of home broadband could well be wireless.

The easiest way to experience the benefits of 5G today is with a home internet router, with brands such as Robustel and Peplink offering high quality solutions.

The Internet of Things (IoT)

The IoT is the network of items connected to the internet, which currently range from smart tvs, to smart toasters, to childrens’ toys, to home security systems, and the list is constantly growing, set to increase from 700 million to 3.2 billion connected devices this year with 5G being one of the most important contributing factors to this.

Aside from the speed increase, 5G networks will offer greater reliability and stable connections which is vital for using devices such as locks, cameras and other systems that rely on real-time updates.

Vehicles

This will also be a crucial component in self-driving cars. Self-driving cars will interact with smart roads, traffic lights, and other vehicles, and may need to offload some of their processing power to larger, nearby computers – but only if you’re on a low-latency 5G network, not 4G.

Even though the cars are exchanging very little packets of data, they must do so almost immediately. When a packet of data is sent directly between two cars or bounces from a car to a small cell on a lamppost to another car, 5G’s sub-one-millisecond latency comes into play (A light-millisecond is approximately 186 miles, so the majority of the 1ms latency is still processing time).

Augmented Reality

5G could very well play a significant role in augmented reality and the “metaverse”.

The notion is that if you’re going to be wearing AR glasses outside, having business ratings show up above restaurant front doors, and conversing with holographic ghosts of individuals walking next to you, you’ll need the low latency and the consistent speed that 5G provides.

Cloud and AI

Cloud and AI have been advancing rapidly, with 81% of businesses globally now embracing cloud computing and cloud-based applications. AI is driving this change as it helps businesses create more value with their data.

Cloud and AI are also demanding better connectivity, which means 5G will shine, once network coverage is improved to meet the new demands.

Conclusion

5G is an investment for the future. The 5G transition is a complicated one, and having to deal with a 2-year pandemic certainly hasn’t helped. Scientists from Finland who helped develop 5G technology have stated that it may not be until 2027 before we see the robotics, smart objects and augmented reality that we’ve been promised.

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