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What is the point of 5G?
- Thread starter SoundLad
- Start date
Ironically though, a mass rollout of 5G will require huge amounts of new fibre in the ground.
OP
OP
o here's the thing.
People are using their phones more and more.
For example: https://www.statista.com/statistics/750757/mobile-data-consumption-sim-card-month-france/
Data usage is increasing every year.
However imagine the spectrum like a radio station.
You know how you tune your FM radio to a specific station.
The only thing that you can hear is that radio station because there's only space there for that.
Now mobile phone frequencies are like that. These are split into channels which are either based on time or frequency.
When someone is using that then they're taking up the airwaves.
In a crowded place such as a train station at peak time. You may have full signal., but the airwaves are full so you can barely, if at all, use mobile data.
So what 5G brings to the table is that it's more efficient. Consider it like rather than transfering a ZIP file you're using a RAR or 7ZIP file, the encoding algorithm gives a smaller file.
This means that you download your data and you're not consuming the airwaves as much. This is the same for the super high bandwidth numbers.
It's not to download Fortnite 20 times. It's so that when you load up your web page, youtube, netflix whatever, it buffers super fast and you're making the airwaves available for other people to use.
The high speeds are mostly advertising. To get enthusiasts to switch or be early adopters.
There's high frequency 5G which will be deployed in very dense areas where the frequencies are called mmWave 24–100GHz. These waves get you crazy high speeds but they are stopped by a sheet of paper.
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Now other features of 5G is that it reduces latency. "ping" if you're familiar with online games is the time it takes to send a packet of data to another machine and for it to come back to you.
The mobile network is a separate network to the internet. So you need to breakout to it.
There's latency on the radio site and there's latency breaking out to the internet.
"5G New Radio" reduces the latency of of the radio portion compared to LTE
In some countries they break out to the internet in a single place. Which means that people far away from that point have higher latency.
5G allows this to be broken out to more areas due to how the core of the network is designed with virtualisation of components in mind.
As part of this low latency stuff, I've seen the mobile phone companies talk about use cases such as Augmented Reality and autonomous vehicle to autonomous vehicle communication.
Here's some slides:
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Also as part of this idea of low latency, there's the concept of a network slice.
This is like a guaranteed slice of the network given to a company across the airwaves.
It'd be very expensive but it can enable things like the remote precision control of machinery by a skilled operator.
Consider 5G to be an enabler. It makes the connectivity more like a fixed line connection. And that opens up the door for innovation.
A better internet connection means that businesses, startups, etc will think of new and interesting ways to use the technology.
Or of course it'll enhance the surveillance state. haha 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀
Thank you for the insights! Very helpful.
For sure, but the most expensive part of the infrastructure is the last mile.
I expect the incoming generation (young zoomers, and whatever the generation after that is called) to likely never have home internet, similar to how many millennial's have never had cable/satellite television, and how gen X before that managed to shed off home phones.
The future will have a cell phone plan equipped with 5G that will be the anchor point within a house that activates all devices.
The future will have a cell phone plan equipped with 5G that will be the anchor point within a house that activates all devices.
All those IoT devices communicating with each other. 5G is going to be huge!
Well it depends on the companies on how huge but it's going to be game changing.
Also more competition for internet access at home including out in the middle of nowhere.
Doesn't 5g tech have some like bounce off other devices tech or am I thinking of wifi6?
Well it depends on the companies on how huge but it's going to be game changing.
Also more competition for internet access at home including out in the middle of nowhere.
Doesn't 5g tech have some like bounce off other devices tech or am I thinking of wifi6?
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Absolutely, I got to know a few folks that work in telecoms through my last job, and the word "wayleave agreement" is permanently imprinted in my brain as a result.