The 5G Revolution

What is 5G?

5G is a major buzzword in the telecommunications industry right now. It’s important to understand this upcoming enhancement because it will change our whole online experience. What exactly is 5G and what impact will it have on technology? By definition, 5G stands for the 5^th Generation of wireless technology and it is the successor to what we currently use on our smart devices – 4G or LTE. There will be a plethora of benefits for your smart devices such as: extremely fast speeds, the ability to move more data, lower latency, more responsiveness, and the ability to connect multiple devices at once. The connection speeds will be exponentially faster in comparison to 4G and LTE. It will supposedly have a download speed of an impressive 1 to 10 Gbps compared to a mere 100 Mbps with LTE. That’s fast, and with 5G this will become the standard for the industry around the world.

What will 5G do?

While these benefits will enhance our personal device usage, the impact on technology and telecommunications will be transformative. One of these benefits is the ability to perform remote surgery. Low latency of 5G paired with the fact that there will be almost no lag at all will allow surgeons to perform in other rooms through the use of Virtual Reality and a robotic arm. This will enable surgeons, or people of any profession, to use their skills in real time from anywhere in the world. The IoT (Internet of Things) as a whole will benefit, particularly self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles. Several companies are working on the emerging technology of self-driving cars now, but many people believe they won’t be successful until the implementation of 5G. Instant responses, unlimited coverage, and 5G sensors built around cities will allow for the cars to seamlessly communicate with one another and maneuver urban traffic safely and efficiently. This same concept is also true for drones. Drones are currently being used, but not nearly to their full potential. Through 5G, drones will now be able to share information with one another and send real time data to users, thus unlocking an unlimited amount of different uses.

When will 5G be available?

So, when can we expect this exciting change to be implemented? The larger wireless providers will be unveiling the service throughout this year. Multiple companies ran test trials in several different cities in 2017 and plan to launch mobile 5G in a dozen cities across the country by the end of 2018. One company has tested 5G in almost 50 cities already and are promising to have full, nationwide 5G coverage available by 2020. Another important thing to note is the fact that to use 5G, you must have a 5G compatible phone that can handle the huge amounts of data and the instantaneous speeds. Over 18 global device makers have pledged to have their 5G compatible phones on the market by early 2019. However, there are still some finishing touches that need to be done before 5G can become a normal, readily available service. For now, all we can do is prepare ourselves and wait!