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Don’t Get Left Behind: 5G Era Is Here

A consumer study sponsored by Intel in August found that 58 percent of Americans were not knowledgeable about 5G or had not heard of it. Allow us to inform you of some need to know the information because the potential here is unlimited. 

The transition to new fifth-generation networks, known as 5G, will affect how you use smartphones and many other devices. For instance, the newly released iPhone 11 is not 5G enabled. Womp Womp Womp. On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy S10+ is 5G compatible. This is not a pitch on one vs the other. Being factual actual.

Don Clark of the New York Times writes

“The transition to new fifth-generation cellular networks, known as 5G for short, will also affect many other kinds of devices, including industrial robots, security cameras, drones and cars that send traffic data to one another. This new era will leap ahead of current wireless technology, known as 4G, by offering mobile internet speeds that will let people download entire movies within seconds and most likely bring big changes to video games, sports and shopping.”

Readers take note the next generation is going to be almost entirely connected which means even more dependent on connections.

Officials in the United States and China see 5G networks as a competitive edge. Faster networks could help spread the use of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. The range of where 5G is applicable continues to widen in almost any field one could imagine.

Question: What exactly is 5G?

Strictly speaking, 5G is a set of technical ground rules that define the workings of a cellular network, including the radio frequencies used and how various components like computer chips and antennas handle radio signals and exchange data.

Question: How fast will 5G be?

The answer depends on where you live, which wireless services you use and when you decide to take the 5G plunge.

Qualcomm, the wireless chip maker, said it had demonstrated peak 5G download speeds of 4.5 gigabytes a second, but predicts initial median speeds of about 1.4 gigabytes. That translates to roughly 20 times faster than the current 4G experience. Which means larger metropolises would have generally better experiences, however that does not necessarily mean rural areas are totally screwed. 

And downloading a typical movie at the median speeds cited by Qualcomm would take 17 seconds with 5G, compared with six minutes for 4G. What could you do with the extra 5 minutes and 43 seconds? Popcorn and a bathroom break.

Rather than remembering to download a season of a favorite TV show before heading to the airport, for example, you could do it while in line to board a plane, said Justin Denison, a Samsung senior vice president.

The Evolution of 5G

Question: Is that the only speed that matters?

No.

There’s another kind of speed, a lag known as latency, that may become even more important with 5G.

A lag of 50 to several hundred milliseconds is common, partly because signals often must pass between different carrier switching centers; 5G, which uses newer networking technology, was designed to reduce latency to a few milliseconds. 

Question: When will 5G be here?

Countries expected to follow the United States with 2019 rollouts of 5G include Britain, Germany, Switzerland, China, South Korea and Australia, according to a timetable compiled by Qualcomm.

Instead of relying on large towers placed far apart, the new signals will come from smaller equipment placed an average of 500 feet apart in neighborhoods and business districts. Much of the equipment will be on streetlights or utility poles, often accompanied by containers the size of refrigerators on the ground. More than 300,000cell stations now provide wireless connections, and 5G will bring hundreds of thousands perhaps millions more.

Allan Holmes of the New York Times had this to say

The companies, like Verizon Communications and AT&T, say that the equipment will be safe and unobtrusive, and that it is needed to support future applications like driverless cars. Dotting them throughout neighborhoods is necessary for full coverage, they say, because the new 5G signals do not travel as far as the radio frequencies now in use.

Additional fun facts.

Under plans for 5G, carriers will most likely offer mobile Internet speeds of more than 10 gigabits per second, or roughly 100 times faster than current networks (and significantly quicker than existing broadband).

According to global tech and telecom companies that are spending billions of dollars, combined, on the new wireless technology:

  • With 5G, downloading feature-length movies could take less than five seconds.
  • With 4G, downloading feature-length movies could take as long as eight minutes.

Companies are also preparing for millions of new wireless devices to be connected to the next generation of cellphone networks, potentially billions of new sensors will require almost universal connectivity, or the ability to go online no matter where they are.

This is very important.

Survey the devices in your home that are dependent on a wireless connection. Now increase that 10 fold. Might need too future proof your home look here.

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