What’s the Deal with 5G?
Do you remember when having a cell-phone was a privilege? You can now hardly find a phone that isn’t connected to every conceivable service on the planet. Every new generation of phones comes with new and improved software and capabilities. Computers and even appliances have developed a need for fast, stable and strong internet connection. The latest generation of communication comes in the form of 5G, the worthy successor to the 4G network. We will talk about the advantages it has over its predecessors.
Speed and Latency
As expected, 5G is considerably faster than 4G. In fact, one of the companies pioneering the development of this tech, Qualcomm, has predicted that the network will reach speeds several times higher than the previous networks. To put it into perspective, you can now download an entire HD movie in a matter of a few minutes. It is not only the speed that is improving.
If you were ever in a position where you were using real-time data transfer for video-calls, gaming, and so on, you may have noticed that high speed is worth little if paired with high latency. Latency is the time a piece of info goes from one place to another. In other words, there could be interference and delays. 5G offers lower latency and fewer packages lost in the transfer.
So, the scale of the things you will be able to do has just grown to unexpected heights. If you thought that downloading music and audiobooks while playing games and chatting with your friends to coordinate better was impressive, just try to imagine hosting a HD virtual party, while everyone and their mother uses the internet for the most demanding tasks, like streaming a conference call in HD on online platforms, downloading an unbelievable amount of data in a short time, and being connected to everyone and everything. It blows your mind, right?
Application
Apart from the mobile internet, there are several practical applications that the stability of 5G makes possible. The speed, precision, and strength of the network will allow remote surgeries to take place. You will be able to remotely touch other people and share your sensations with them. Self-driving cars, drones, and other machines will have more time to react in new situations and will generally become more responsive to controls.
Home internet and mobile internet will also see the improvement. The new network will require new machines, so there will probably be a longer adjustment period. There is no need to worry since 5G has not yet been officially launched for commercial purposes. Some say it’s coming soon, while others believe it will be a few years before we get to truly see it in action.