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- 5G will bring an increase in data speed and reliability for mobile devices.
- The impacts and new applications for the market won’t be seen straight away, but a wide range of services and new devices will benefit from it.
- Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it does not cause cancer and is not related to Covid-19.
Ah, new technology. A new combination of random characters. New and confusing advertising campaigns. The promise of a solution to all our problems. What excitement!
If you’ve been following along, you’ve probably heard of 5G — it’s now operational in 24 countries and will overtake 2G and 3G in number of users by 2025. So let’s talk about it.
What is 5G?
Mobile networks have communication standards and algorithms that manage the data being transmitted, and specific equipment that sends and receives information with the rest of the world. As technology evolves, new equipment and communication techniques create opportunities for faster, more reliable communication. 5G is the 5th generation of mobile wireless networks that brings, amongst many other things, enormous speed and reliability to mobile devices.
1G allowed us to make phone calls on mobile phones as big as bricks. With 2G, we could send text messages to other people and they would arrive at the other side in less than 5 seconds (most of the time). With 3G, mobile phones found the internet, and 4G gave us the speed and convenience of watching The Bachelor in the bus while four other people followed along over our shoulders.
Now we have smartwatches, and cell phones that have the power to fly to the moon and back. We are also coming to a crunch point in the capacity of 4G networks with so many new connected devices — e-bikes and scooters, autonomous vehicles, drones, tracking devices, tablets, laptops, smart curb sensors, virtual and augmented reality devices, smart appliances and, amongst many other things, most importantly — pet trackers. The current networks weren’t designed to support the number of devices we’ll see hitting the market in the next few years, and 5G conveniently brings full capabilities to support this growth.
It can handle 1000 times more devices than the current 4G technology and will be at least 10 times faster. The main selling point from several technical reviews is that “you can download an HD movie in under a second” — which really begs the question of why we’re not calling 5G “Fast and Furious”?
But what changes?
It depends on who you ask.
If all you’re thinking about is mobile phones, speed and reliability will be the main things you will notice — but then, the current generation of 4G (called 4G LTE) is not that bad so you might not see much difference. Other than the speeds, the big exciting difference is the volume of devices supported by 5G systems.
Avid festival, sports or concert goers know well the experience of looking at your phone and seeing indication that there is no signal available. This is because towers have a maximum number of devices they can handle in one go. 4G has an okay support for this, but the world is producing more and more technology that wants to be connected all the time, which would bring the current infrastructure to its knees. 5G has support for 1000 times the number of devices that 4G supports, and that means that the likes of Internet of Things, Smart Cities and autonomous vehicles can hook into 5G networks without fear, all of that without affecting the speed promised at all.
One of the unintended consequences being raised is that 5G might bring the death of wireless routers for homes and offices, which will also affect broadband services as we know it. With a wireless technology available everywhere we won’t need that many cables coming to every location and equipment distributing wireless signal once those cables get there. Some security considerations will arise as, all of a sudden, all of a company’s computers and data can be directly connected to networks they don’t control. But mostly, it means the internet will be everywhere regardless of whether you have a wireless modem at home or not.
As far as the capability of current apps and services, these depend mostly on phones and their operating systems so, other than allowing for apps that rely on faster speeds, nothing much will change as far as what 5G itself brings.
For telcos, a lot will have to change. Up to 4G, one antenna can cover a lot of ground and go around obstacles. 5G is moving up the microwave spectrum (upwards of 30GHz if you’re taking notes) at which signals start getting blocked by buildings, trees and rain. This means we’ll need more antennas around an area to ensure availability of 5G. It also means rural coverage will be tricky and those areas might stay with 4G for longer.
Most of the change will come from areas we can’t fully understand yet. Smart appliances, vehicles, and devices will have a high-reliability network everywhere they are, and this will open the door for new services and allow machines to coordinate with each other at extremely fast speeds.
Can I use it now?
Yes. Or no. Maybe. Depends on your carrier and device.
In New Zealand, Vodafone has partial support in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and Queenstown. Spark is slowly rolling it out around the country — at time of writing: Alexandra, Westport, Twizel, Tekapo, Hokitika, and Clyde were the first places to offer 5G. And You need a special 5G plan for both carriers. 2degrees doesn’t have any information about their rollout yet.
Your device also needs to be 5G enabled. Later Samsung and Huawei devices have that capability, and other phone makers are releasing new models with the capability. Widespread support to Android devices are not set to come into play until the release of Android 11 (mid-2020, but different manufacturers might take a while to release updates). iPhone premium models will be getting support for it in 2020, but support for lower-spec models won’t be available until 2021.
Should I be worried about my health?
No.
Similar worries have been raised and raved when mobiles were first in the market, then with 2G, then with 3G, 4G, and (unsurprisingly) with 5G too.
To quote the New Zealand’s Ministry of Health: “5G is just another application of radio technology. There is nothing unique to 5G that would make it interact differently with the body than other radiofrequency fields (radio signals).” The microwaves used by all these technologies have been around us in many other forms for many years, and the science on this is solid (albeit, not as loud as the argument on the other side).
Also, the hoax linking 5G to the proliferation of Covid-19 is, well, a hoax.
You’ll be okay. I promise.
I’ve heard some politics are involved?
Buckle up, kids, we have a very drastic change of pace for you in this article. We’re about to talk about politics and their impact on information security.
Presence in the infrastructure means access to all the information being transmitted on it. This has always been the case, and infrastructure providers haven't come to that much scrutiny in the past as they tend to adhere to regulations and policies imposed by each country. But one of the biggest 5G equipment providers is Huawei, a Chinese company heavily backed by the government, which means fresh concerns for those in power to show they know what they’re talking about.
Last year the US passed an executive order for information security. That meant Huawei stopped being able to provide equipment for the 5G infrastructure, effectively being banned from the US. All because of fear that their equipment would spy on everyone as The House Speaker carefully warned Europe about.
Alternative equipment has not proven to be as reliable or cost-effective, which put the US government in a tight spot. The United Kingdom is proceeding with using the company anyway. Germany’s debate over the matter is putting the country in an interesting position as their take could ultimately be a statement of who their alliances lie with between the US and China. The US government is reconsidering its position due to pressure from the market. If you must ask, New Zealand blocked the company in 2018, but backtracked it in November 2019.
It’s impossible to ascertain at this point if the concerns around security are valid or not.
Is that all?
Yes. It’s pretty straight forward. Some new equipment to be installed, some new phones, crazy speeds and reliability. Who would have thought?
As mentioned above, the big changes with the new technology are still to be seen and in 5-7 years’ time is where the benefits and new opportunities will start popping up in the market. Stay tuned!