How 4G changed the world — and how 5G could
The latest innovation or upgrade in technology that’s hot on everyone’s lips is 5G — a new super fast, low latency wireless system.
5G- which has been hailed as the fourth industrial revolution by AdWeek, is a next generation way to connect to the web as we attain an ever-expanding number of high-tech devices, many of which require extensive bandwidth.
Put simply, 5G is the 5th generation mobile network. You’ve heard of 2G, 3G and 4G, the change in signal and speed when you’re in the city vs out in the sticks.
With 3G mobile networks introduced mobile data for the first time, access to the internet to browse the web, 4G introduced LTE, an advanced in speed and improvement in capabilities.
Whereas 5G is much faster — up to 10x faster than its predecessor and welcomes a whole new realm of opportunities.
But its introduction hasn’t exactly been a solid start. The testing phases in the UK it have been met with many criticisms and rumours. Including links to China and it’s ‘big brother state’ collecting data on the western world, and even that is has spread Coronavirus — a rumour we debunked in our recent article:
What did 4G bring?
The first 4G services came online in the early 2010s, first in Scandinavia and then trickling to the United States, Asia and the rest of the world.
4G became the foundation on which the smartphone revolution was built, leading to the ‘there’s an app for that’ mentality that powered photo sharing, video streaming, social media, e-commerce and other mobile applications to become a part of our daily routine.
The jump from 3G to 4G meant faster speeds, lower latency and more bandwidth .
An early prodigy of 4G was Apple’s FaceTime. Then apps like Uber, Just Eat, CityMapper followed. It paved the way for Netflix and Amazon Prime Videos dominance within the film industry — putting new Hollywood at our fingertips.
It brought social media away from the laptop and into our hands with Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok— allowing us to share high resolution images and videos to friends, family, and maybe even millions of followers.
4G was a monumental technological leap costing an estimated $1 trillion in network upgrades between 2012 and 2018.
What’s so special about 5G anyway?
As of today, 5G is in 2 US cities, and across a number of ‘testbeds’ in the UK. China and Japan have started to roll out the technology since 2018 and are currently the market leaders. This is followed by Switzerland and many middle eastern countries.
5G will use many of the same components and infrastructure as the current generation, 4G — however rely on 5G masts to work.
“It will allow you to send so much more data so much faster and technology will be more responsive.” says John O’Malley of Verizon.
As we’ve mentioned, 5G will be up-to-10x as fast as current 4G networks. 5G promises faster speeds, greater capacity, and lower latency. But what does that even?
Faster Speeds & improved precision
5G uses unique radio frequencies that are higher and more directional than those used by 4G. The larger the frequency, the greater its ability to support fast data without interfering with other wireless signals.
5G also uses shorter wavelengths than 4G, which means antennas can be shorter without interfering with the direction of the wavelengths.
5G can therefore support approximately 1,000 more devices per meter than 4G. On 5G, more data will more quickly get to more people with less latency and disruption to meet surging data demands.
Low latency & more bandwidth
With 5G, it takes less time for the signal to travel, which translates to low levels of latency. Meaning data will load faster, making experiences in VR and AR more immersive, or the possibilities of video calls way beyond their current limitations.
Because of 4G, video became the new standard for how we consume content online. YouTube and Netflix became our new cable TV networks, and Instagram because a glorified video highlights reel with ‘Stories’ of your everyday life.
The possibilities of 5G
5G will not cause an overnight shift in the way we use technology. It will continue to run parallel with 4G — after all, most of our phones only support 4G anyway. Similar to 3G, 4G will be gradually rolled out over the coming years. Then we’ll start to see 5G Broadband deals within our homes and offices soon.
Whilst it’s impossible to accurately predict what 5G will birth, we do have some ideas;
- Gaming: The idea of being able to play any game, any where at any time. No lag or latency issues. An early take on this is Google’s Stadia — a streaming platform that requires no console, relying on strong broadband speeds allowing you seamlessly play between devices.
- Streaming Galore: 4G brought Netflix into our living rooms and into our pockets, and 5G is set to excel that with 8K content in an instant, and the possibility to move beyond just video, and stream games, virtual and augmented reality content and beyond.
- Live-Streams at scale: Click on any social app nowadays and you’ll find people live-streaming, whether it’s your friend or favourite influencer on Instagram, or 1000’s of gamers on Twitch, live-streaming has become a new way to consume content. Heck, just this week YouTuber MrBeast clocked up 12 million views and raised $1million for charity with a Rock Paper Scissors matchup. 5G will allow the technology to develop and for more complex solutions to be possible.
What’s brilliant about all of this is that nobody knows what will happen. We’re all just making educated guesses with our knowledge of the technology and demand and emerging trends. But who could have predicted Uber would have totally revolutionised the taxi industry before it launched?
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