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5G swept onto the US mobile scene with great fanfare in 2018. In TV ads, online banners, and radio spots, mobile-network providers touted gigabit download speeds, zero latency, and the ability to connect everything from autonomous vehicles to robot surgeons. So far, the technology hasn’t delivered on those promises.
In the U. S. , some 5G smartphone users have reported insufficient services and speeds, while others remain convinced that 5G spreads the COVID-19 virus (which it doesn’t).
Still, the industry remains confident that the promise of 5G will bear out. Indeed, Qualcomm, a wireless-technology company, suggests that 5G will significantly influence the global economy, with it generating $13.1 trillion of economic output and creating 22.8 million jobs by 2035.
Even if your 5G phone is already changing your life, the cellular generation already looks promising in rural areas, hospitals, and some “smart” cities. With tweaks underway to the network infrastructure, experts told Business Insider that they expect a large-scale adaptation. in the near future.
Unlike past generations of wireless cellular technology, the transition to 5G has been much more challenging. There are many issues similar to the rollout of 5G.
While there has typically been one path forward as we’ve moved from one mobile-wireless standard to the next, such as from 3G to 4G, the route for 5G has been bifurcated between stand-alone and non-stand-alone networks, a decision made by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, the standards commission for mobile-broadband technologies.
This fork means that instead of a direct transition from 4G to 5G, as previously occurred, 3GPP will create an intermediate tier (the non-standalone network) that would give telecom operators time to upgrade their infrastructure to comply with 5G. Requirements.
Mobile networks have 3 components: the radio access network (the physical towers needed for a signal), the forwarding network (what moves the signal from the central infrastructure to the towers), and the central infrastructure (the servers and the software for technology). . . The resolution to first deploy 5G non-standalone meant that the radio towers were first upgraded to the popular 5G, but continued to use the popular 4G core infrastructure. With radio towers and core infrastructure operating at each other As expected, non-standalone 5G presented few advantages over existing 4G connections. The lack of widespread standalone 5G has led to many unmet expectations.
Standalone 5G is gradually rolling out in the U. S. , Canada, and parts of Asia, and Europe is not far behind. For standalone 5G networks, the use cases are numerous and will continue to multiply as more and more telcos move away from their non-standalone networks.
Will Townsend, a vice president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, a global company focused on high-tech research and advisory, estimates that 2024 will be the year that most mobile networks are able to shift to stand-alone 5G or, at the very least, make significant progress toward that goal.
As an advisor, Townsend is asked about the most impressive 5G use cases. For him, the most obvious is constant wireless access, which uses a base station connected to a constant network to bring 5G connectivity to spaces where telcos have traditionally struggled to achieve. Offer an affordable, high-quality web service.
In these areas, where traditional wired internet access can be patchy or nonexistent, homes and businesses can more easily obtain a 5G base station and get internet beamed in from 5G towers. In 2022, T-Mobile and Verizon added over 3 million fixed wireless subscribers, up from over 700,000 in 2021.
“Once we’re self-sufficient, it’ll be great to see what those developers come up with,” Townsend said of the prospects for 5G networks. “The superpower of 5G compared to 4G is latency, the delay it takes from one point to another. Today, on a 4G network, latency can range from 40 to 50 milliseconds. 5G alone lasts less than five milliseconds, so it’s an order of magnitude that’s just mind-boggling. “
However, Neils Kalnins, the director of development and custom management at the electronic-communications office of Latvia and the program director of 5G Techritory, said that despite 5G being five years into its journey, the challenge is not necessarily just infrastructure; it’s a matter of understanding why 5G technology isn’t being used appropriately.
5G Techritory, Europe’s leading forum on 5G, aims to solve this challenge which, according to Kalnins, has more to do with society than the generation itself.
“What is the understanding of this technology?” “What is the ability of other industries to absorb this technology? I think it’s pretty clear that 5G is rarely about connecting us more over Zoom; rather, it’s about how to connect the greater Internet of Things, how to run IoT systems, synthetic technologies and intelligence tools.
The fifth-generation wireless generation is already being rolled out in hospitals across the United States. Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic Mentor Hospital uses a personal 5G network, the first in the country to do so (though the first 5G-enabled hospital, the Department of Veterans Affairs Alto Health System in 2020), and hospitals across Asia have also deployed 5G-enabled healthcare. The generation is also starting to force smart cities, such as Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Las Vegas.
Kalnins said he believes 5G’s low latency, which allows machines to communicate with each other more efficiently, will lead to greater automation and digitalization. He said the factories were a clever example of an industry that would be bolstered through 5G, as generation can run smoothly. Deliver wireless web policies at scale.
As someone who participates in discussions with policymakers, companies, researchers, and founders, Kalnins believes that one of the main reasons 5G is not yet widely used is that “society has not yet obtained the goods and technology; Companies aren’t smart yet. “”Enough to deliver those goods in the right way,” he said.
Still, Kalnins and Townsend say the hype around 5G is justified and that the prospects are huge, especially for consumers.
“The interesting thing about 5G is that we don’t know what’s in store for consumers,” Townsend said.