To meet the future 5G standard, compliant networks must provide data speeds of up to 20 Gbps. The standard was determined by a 12-member delegation at a San Diego conference held June 10-18.Though many people are still getting accustomed to 4G LTE speeds, it’s never to early to start dreaming of an even faster mobile future. Though not slated to roll out until 2020 or so, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) just recently disclosed what type of speed will constitute 5G. Suffice it to say, the mobile experience of today may soon feel like an old 56k dial-up modem in just a few years.
According to The Korea Times, 5G will be defined as a network “capable of transmitting data at up to 20 gigabits-per-second”, a speed which would enable users to download HD movies in just a few seconds. By way of contrast, peak 4G speeds top out at 150 megabits per second, though most people never enjoy that type of speed anyhow.
“The 5G network will also have a capacity to provide more than 100 megabits-per-second average data transmission to over one million Internet of Things devices within 1 square kilometer,” the report adds.
Ahead of a planned 2020 commercialization timeline, the ITU will soon start accepting technologies to be considered for the 5G standard. Which is to say, there’s still a whole lot of work to be done to make 5G more of a reality than an idea.
Nokia Networks, along with other industry partners, is actively preparing for the communication needs beyond 2020 as they will involve a combination of existing and evolving systems. LTE-Advanced and Wi-Fi, will be coupled with revolutionary technologies that are designed to meet new requirements, such as virtually zero latency to support tactile Internet, machine-to-machine (M2M), or augmented reality.
5G will comprise the set of technical components and systems needed to support these requirements and overcome the limits of current systems.
What will 5G allow me to do that I can’t right now with 4G?
To provide a little more context around how much faster 5G speeds will be compared to 4G, let’s go back to the video example I mentioned at the beginning. According to Huawei, 5G will allow you to download an eight gigabyte HD movie in six seconds versus the seven minutes it would take over 4G or more than an hour on 3G.
But 5G is much more than just faster data speeds on your mobile devices. It also opens the door to a lot of different consumer and industrial applications and uses — some of which seem unbelievable now because they’re so futuristic.
For example, Ulrich Dropmann, head of industry environment networks at Nokia, gave a scenario where you might be cruising in your driverless car when, unbeknownst to you, a crash has just occurred up the road. With 5G, sensors placed along the road would be able to instantly relay that information back to your car (this is where having low latency is important), so it could brake earlier and avoid another accident.