Changing The Game: 5G Is Much More Than Bandwidth

Being a pessimistic consumer is relatively easy. Until something is in your hands and you can see and feel its tangible benefits, any promises of ‘bigger, better, quicker’ sit firmly in category of the brain marked ‘pipe dreams’.

- Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

5G, for instance, reads like a simple, even standard upgrade on 4G, 3G, and the other two that you may not have been around for long enough to remember using: 2G and 1G.

However, 5G is set to be the biggest mobile phone generation game changer since 1G was introduced in 1979. To get an idea of how significant 5G could prove to be, telecom experts are going as far as eulogizing its arrival as the spark to ignite the fourth Industrial Revolution. It is more – much more – than a mere upgrade of the existing wireless and telecommunications network.

IT’S GOING TO BE RIDICULOUSLY QUICK

Do you remember the first time you saw ‘4G’ pop up on the screen of your mobile device, and can you remember noticing any significant difference? Since it was successfully rolled out, 4G has frequently delivered information up to 10 times faster than its predecessor. So, while you may not have noticed the difference straight away, you’d soon become aware in the event of being permanently returned to a 3G network.

Before we get to the insane difference between the speed of 4G and its soon-to-be successor, 5G, there is one other distinct difference between the two. They operate on different wavelengths, which also equates to different frequencies. Between 3-30 gigahertz (GHz), this frequency is measured in wavelengths ranging from one to 10 centimeters. 4G, for instance, works on radio waves of between 2-8GHz.

5G, however, is powered by millimeter wave technology (24GHz to 90GHz). The most fundamental advantage of millimeter wave technology, or centimeter wave technology, is how fast it can move data. It can process 10 gigabits or 1250 megabytes every second,