5G is the next generation of wireless network technology that is expected to soon change the way people live and work. It is expected to be faster and able to handle more connected devices than the existing 4G network, improvements that will enable a wave of new tech products. 5G networks began to be rolled out in the United States, and around the world, in 2018 and are still in their early days, but experts say that the potential is huge.
Why Choose 5G
Companies are now racing to have the fastest or largest 5G networks, and countries are competing to be the first to deploy fully functional, nationwide 5G services. This is because the benefits of 5G are expected to help give birth to new technologies for consumers, businesses, infrastructure as well as defense!
The Benefits of 5G
Much of the hype surrounding 5G has to do with its speed. But there are other perks as well. 5G is expected to have greater bandwidth, meaning it can handle many more connected devices than all previous networks. That means no more unreliable service when you’re in a crowded area. And it will enable even more connected devices such as smart toothbrushes and self-driving cars.
5G is also expected to reduce latency, which is the time it takes for a cell phone, or other connected devices, to make a request from a server and then get a response to virtually zero. It will also make communication with cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure much faster and easier.
How It Works
With 5G networks, signals run over new radio frequencies, requiring updating radios and other equipment on cell towers. There are a few different methods for building a 5G network, depending on the type of assets a carrier has:
– Low-band network with wide coverage area, but only about 20% faster than 4G.
– High-band network with superfast speeds whose signals don’t travel well and struggle to move through hard surfaces.
– Mid-band network which balances speed and coverage.
Carriers building superfast 5G networks must install tons of small cell sites, which are about the size of pizza boxes, to light poles, walls, or towers, often in relatively close proximity to one another. For that very reason, superfast networks are mostly being deployed city by city. Eventually, most carriers will have a mix of the different network types that will better enable both broad coverage and fast speeds.