How 5G is going to change the world?

5G is finally on the cards after years of anticipation and creating a lot of hype all around.

Mobile operators are making significant attempts to make it a reality sooner rather than later. Promising to dramatically change the lives of consumers and the way of doing business, the Internet technology shift to fifth-generation (5G) has much more to offer than speed, low latency and availability. It has the potential to connect the whole world under one roof of network i.e., 5G. With the increase in the number of shoe box-sized towers in every square kilometre, mature 5G will have a dense network infrastructure operating at higher range of frequencies compared to 4G LTE networks. This will enable 5G to have increased capacity that can support a huge number of devices with minimal lag-time and speeds faster up to 20 folds than 4G. 5G antennas consume less amount of power which is beneficial for connecting small IoT devices that run through batteries.

5G can change our lives in the following ways:

1. Connected digital assets in the cities of the future

Cities will be enabled to manage the bulk of data generated from millions of IoT devices constituting sensors, meters, lights connected to the network like 5G technology. It is aimed at optimising cities’ operations and services, for e.g., installation of low-power sensors that can be used for years with no requirement of replacement thereby saving costs. IoT-enabled smart city devices will be functioned to intelligently manage air quality, traffic flow, public safety, power use, etc. Managing traffic and power using 5G wireless networks could save $160 billion as per a 2017 Accenture strategy report.

2. Industry 4.0 transforms traditional work methods to new-age techniques

Industries will experience the highest impact of 5G where thousands of industrial devices will be connected through IoT technology operating seamlessly in a 5G networking environment. Low-latency, faster speed and high bandwidth will give new dimensions to applications and services to improve their efficiency and be more productive using new-age working techniques. It is expected to track more than 500 million devices by the end of 2023.

3. Driving without humans is now possible in autonomous vehicles

With the increase in the number of vehicles, accidents have increased too. The reason? In 95% of the cases, human error is risking millions of lives. Autonomous vehicles can help in saving 1.25 million lives per year as it does not depend on humans to run on wheels. But this can only be possible when the cars can communicate easily with other components such as sensors, streetlights, other vehicles and pavement on-road and navigate safely. They need to send and receive messages instantly for taking immediate actions to avoid accidents which is where 5G’s low latency (~1 ms response time) comes into the picture and can assist the vehicle to communicate with everything i.e., V2X communication effectively. Having autonomous cars on road, the streets may have less crowd decreasing air pollution. Mobile network operators are conducting 5G trials with RF drive testing tools on road to test network coverage on specified routes connecting different cities. Automotive industry will be highly benefitted from 5G as they continue to bring innovations partnering with telcos and transforming in-car experiences.

4. Telemedicine makes doctor consultation available at your fingertips

5G can stream High-Definition videos required to consult doctors virtually. In the wake of coronavirus disease, telemedicine has gained popularity to get instant personalised advice anytime, anywhere from medical professionals around the world. This has reduced long patient queues in medical centers thus maintaining social distancing in times of crisis. Also, it resolved the patient’s pain to travel long distances just to get medical advice from a certified care practitioner. Moreover, new-age medical devices, wearables are being enabled to capture patient’s day-to-day activity data and transmitted it to care professionals, permitting them to detect any warning signs of serious illnesses like cancer, heart strokes, and other life-threatening events diseases.

Key takeaway:

5G is expanding and so is the genre of applications and services. With the high potential to give a smart angle to every critical operation, business process and day-to-day activities, 5G is becoming an ideal choice. Having said that, 5G is poised to take the world to a new level where the way of living and working will be much more sophisticated and simpler too. On the 5G progress, MNOs are taking quick actions to build this unparalleled new generation of network. They are utilising 5G network testing equipment and tools to execute tests on multiple test cases in both mild and severe conditions to assess and give valuable results and then, finally commercialise it. As a result, from autonomous cars to remote patient monitoring, automating tedious manual tasks to managing millions of IoT devices, 5G will bring new innovations and supercharge these applications/services to ultimately deliver the best experience to users.