What if I told you “Am I audible?” is going to be obsolete? Yes, it’s true. With this fast-evolving and continuously-improving technology from 1G to 5G, the future is going to be unpredictable. Sounds unbelievable? Let’s find out how.
WHAT IS 5G?
5G is the term for the fifth-generation of mobile network. After 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, it is a new worldwide wireless network technology.
5G supports creation of a new type of network that connects practically everyone and everything, including machines, objects, and gadgets. It’s designed to provide more connectivity than was ever available before. It’s a more capable network and has been built with increased capacity to support next-generation user experiences, new deployment methods, and service delivery.
It will expand the mobile ecosystem into new realms. 5G will impact every industry, making safer transportation, remote healthcare, precision agriculture, digitised logistics and much more; a reality.
How is 5G different from previous generations of mobile networks?
Three abilities provided by 5G differ hugely from the previous generations like 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G.
WHAT WILL 5G PROVIDE?
* High Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data transmitted over an internet connection in a given amount of time.
In simple words, it’s the amount of information that can be sent over an internet connection in a specific duration. And is calculated in megabits per second (Mbps).
For example, when you’re watching a video on YouTube, you often experience buffering. You curse your poor internet connection for the same. Then, you wait for the video to load. When the video starts playing back, you continue watching.
But think about the duration you had to wait for the video to play. You’d not want that to happen again, do you?
Well, 5G will not only discard the buffering issue but also promises better video quality by providing more amount of information in less time. More information means minimum to no time for loading of data.
4G could master 200 megabits per second (Mbps) but 5G can handle up to 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps).
* Low Latency: Latency is the amount of time taken for a data packet to be captured, transmitted, and processed from one point to the other. Then it’s received at its destination and decoded.
For an instance, imagine you and your friend are travelling from point A to point B. Both the source and the destination are the same. But the route you’re going to take to reach the destination is different from your friend’s route.
As you start travelling from point A, you encounter traffic. Hence you take more time to reach your destination. Since your friend took the other route, reached the destination on time. Though you both started from point A.
Latency is affected by several factors like distance, propagation delay, internet connection type, website content, Wi-Fi, and router.
5G helps the data to reach faster from point A to point B i.e. from the server to you.
In addition, 4G suffers from around 1000 milliseconds response time while 5G can be as low as 1 millisecond response time. Response time is the time that a device takes to respond to the user’s commands. Hence you can browse and watch the Internet content faster.
* Dense Connections: 4G broadband could only connect 1/10th of devices compared to 5G. In 1 sq. km area, 4G broadband could only connect 1 lakh devices to the internet, while 5G broadband can connect to 1 million devices in a sq. km area.
This is possible because 5G uses new radio technology- a part of any wireless device that makes the wireless connection.
4G uses a band of frequencies known as SUB6 that ranges from 600 MHz to 6 GHz. In contrast, 5G uses a higher band of radio frequency that ranges from 24 GHz to 86 GHz. Higher frequency leads to higher data rate.
5G radio waves can carry more data with higher performance but they cannot carry it far. 5G provides better speed with less network range. That means you can connect many devices to the 5G broadband but if you go a little far from where the broadband is kept, you may lose the internet connection.
WILL 4G PHONES SUPPORT 5G NETWORK?
No. To be enabled with 5G, mobile phones will be upgraded to 5G network. 5G users will have to buy 5G phones, tablets to connect to the 5G network as 3G and 4G cannot tap into 5G.
5G has the potential to transform the Internet. To download a movie using 3G network, it would take 26 hours, with 4G, the time reduced down to 6 minutes. But with the 5G network, downloading a movie would only take 3.6 seconds.
Also, 4G network responds to our commands in 0.045 seconds while 5G will take only 0.001 milliseconds.
Services supported by 5G network are going to revolutionise our lives. 5G is expected to be used in factories, HD cameras for safety and traffic management, smart grid control and smart retail. Even cars can talk to each other to avoid collisions. Remote surgeries are going to be a reality.
Telecom companies like Verizon, Apple, Tmobile, Nokia, and Qualcomm are working on creating 5G applications.
5G services are expected to be launched in 2021 with more than 50 operators offering services in about 30 countries by the end of 2021.
