For many of us 5G has already arrived and for others it may be just around the corner as local infrastructure is set to roll out the networking upgrade on a wider scale – many of our devices are also already compatible with 5G and upcoming devices to be launched within the coming months will already be compatible too. Despite the unfounded concerns spreading around what 5G is, it brings a huge number of benefits that may change the way our devices behave and how we interact with them.
Speed – Perhaps the most notable change for many will be in the speed possible with 5G – currently our 4G network is comparable to what may be found from the typical home router with a theoretical max speed of 100 Mbps, for context that would download a two hour movie between six and ten minutes. The theoretical max speed for 5G is 10 Gbps – one hundred times faster, using the same point of reference this would download the same movie in three to four seconds. This will be felt across all streaming media as the quality of what can be watched dramatically increases – 4K HD will stream seamlessly where it may have stuttered before, other services such as our favorite puzzle and bingo games here will have the potential to introduce new features for players as connection is improved. It is important to note, however, that these speeds will be limited at first by hardware capacity and will only get faster as network chips improve on the devices.
Capacity – The next important factor is within capacity – data transfers over a certain spectrum and once that becomes too crowded, much like wifi, connection is slowed as an impact of this. 5G will change that by increasing the bandwidth capacity that is available, meaning that despite the number of people actively using their mobile network, the everyday user should never see any difference in performance as it remains at a higher potential for longer.
Upload Ability – This goes hand in hand with both speed and capacity but our mobile habits have changed as social media has grown – we now send just as much data as we download as programs such as Snapchat require a lot of upload capacity – 5G increases the speed and availability of uploading and provides opportunities for how our devices communicate and transmit data going forward as current restrictions are lifted.
Once it is fully introduced, 5G will likely be around for a long whilst to come – it is a vast improvement in mobile networking, and in the long term presents a lot of opportunities for what may be possible. For many the connection is also much faster than what is possible on their own home internet and WiFi connections, and as such it may be further reaching than just mobile as home internet is also forced in to a position to upgrade infrastructure to provide a similar service to what is possible on our mobile devices.