- Mobile network providers touted 5G as a technological revolution when it arrived in the U.S. market in 2018.
- But five years later, that promise remains unfulfilled, in large part due to 5G’s non-traditional deployment.
- Experts told BI that changes to network infrastructure are underway and will bring about big changes.
- This article is part of “5G Playbook,” a series exploring one of the most significant technological innovations of our time.
5G arrived on the U.S. mobile scene with a bang in 2018. In TV ads, online banners and radio spots, mobile network providers touted gigabit download speeds, zero latency and the ability to connect everything from self-driving cars to robotic surgeons. So far, the technology has not delivered on those promises.
In the United States, some 5G smartphone users Reported Some people think the service and speeds are insufficient, while others think 5G is Spreading the COVID-19 virus (it’s not).
Still, the industry is confident that 5G’s promises will be delivered. In fact, wireless technology company Qualcomm has warned that 5G will have a major impact on the global economy, $13.1 trillion in economic output and 22.8 million jobs by 2035.
5G smartphones might not be life-changing anytime soon, but the mobile technology is already showing promise in rural areas, hospitals, and some “smart” cities. With network infrastructure changes underway, experts told Business Insider they expect to see wide-scale 5G adoption in the near future.
5G will not be introduced to the market in the same way as previous mobile networks, and the impact is clear.
Unlike the transition to previous generations of mobile wireless technology, the transition to 5G will be much more challenging. 5G deployment will be fraught with challenges.
When moving from one mobile wireless standard to another, such as from 3G to 4G, there was usually only one path. But with 5G, Divided into standalone and non-standalone The network was decided upon by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, the standards committee for mobile broadband technology.
This bifurcation means that rather than moving directly from 4G to 5G as in the past, 3GPP has decided to create interim steps (non-standalone networks) to allow operators time to upgrade their infrastructure to meet 5G requirements.
How mobile networks work and how 5G deployment is significantly different
A mobile network has three components: the radio access network (the physical towers needed for the signals), the transport network (what moves the signals from the core infrastructure to the towers), and the core infrastructure (the servers and software for the technology). The decision to roll out 5G in a non-standalone format first meant that the radio towers were upgraded to the 5G standard first, but continued to use the 4G standard for the core infrastructure. As the radio towers and the core infrastructure operate on different standards, Non-standalone 5G offered little benefit to existing 4G connectionsStandalone 5G is not widely available, leaving many expectations unmet.
Standalone 5G is gradually being rolled out in the US, Canada and parts of Asia, with Europe following suit. If you have a standalone 5G network, There are many use casesThis number will continue to grow as more telcos are able to migrate away from non-standalone networks.
Will Townsend, vice president and principal analyst at Moore Insights & Strategy, a global high-tech research and advisory firm, predicts that 2024 will be the year when most mobile networks will be able to transition to standalone 5G or at least make significant progress toward that goal.
Experts expect standalone 5G to make a big difference
As an advisor, Townsend is often asked about the most impressive use cases for 5G. To him, the most obvious is fixed wireless access, which uses base stations connected to a fixed network to bring 5G connectivity to areas where telecommunications companies have previously struggled to provide affordable, high-quality internet service.
In areas where traditional wired internet connections are spotty or nonexistent, homes and businesses will be able to more easily obtain 5G base stations and receive internet from 5G towers. In 2022, T-Mobile and Verizon will 3 million fixed wireless subscribersThat’s up from more than 700,000 in 2021.
“It’s going to be really exciting to see what developers come up with once we get to standalone,” Townsend said of the potential of 5G networks. “Where 5G will be better than 4G is latency, the delay from point to point. Today, on a 4G network, latency is in the 40-50 millisecond range. 5G standalone is less than 5 milliseconds. That’s an incredible order of magnitude difference.”
However, Director of Development and Custom Management of the Latvian Electronics and Communications Office, 5G TechnologyHe said that despite 5G now being in its fifth year, the challenge isn’t necessarily just the infrastructure, but understanding why 5G technology isn’t being used properly.
5G Techritory, Europe’s leading 5G forum, is trying to tackle the issue, but Kalnins says the problem is more about society than the technology itself.
“What is the understanding of this technology?” he said. “What is the capacity of different industries to absorb this technology? I think it’s clear that 5G is not just a way to connect us better over Zoom, but a way to link the massive Internet of Things and use artificial intelligence tools to steer IoT systems.”
What does the future of 5G hold?
Fifth-generation wireless technology is already being deployed in hospitals across the United States. Cleveland Clinic Mentor Hospital in Ohio is using a private 5G networkthe first hospital in the country to deploy 5G (though the first hospital to do so was the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System in 2020). Hospitals across Asia are also introducing 5G-enabled medical careThis technology is also beginning to be applied to smart cities, such as: Colorado SpringsColorado, Las Vegas.
Kalnins said he believes 5G’s low latency will allow machines to communicate more efficiently, leading to greater automation and digitalization. He said factories are a good example of an industry that will be enhanced by 5G. Delivering wireless internet with ease On a large scale.
Having spoken to policymakers, companies, researchers and founders, Kalnins believes the main reason 5G isn’t yet widely available is that “society is not yet ready to receive the goods and technologies, and companies are not smart enough to deliver those goods in the right way.”
But both Kalnins and Townsend believe the hype around 5G is justified and that its potential, especially for consumers, is huge.
“The exciting thing about 5G is that for consumers, there’s no telling what’s going to happen next,” Townsend said.