5G mobile subscriptions are expected to exceed 580 million by the end of 2021, driven by an estimated one million new 5G mobile subscriptions every day.
About 3.5 billion 5G subscriptions and 60 percent 5G population coverage are forecast by the end of 2026, added the 20th edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report.
The shift with 5G
As a result of the speed and data density that 5G provides compared to our current 4G networks, there will be new opportunities for different businesses and business models.
“When 4G was rolled out, we saw companies take advantage of this by developing ride-sharing services, meal delivery, and more. All of these services would’ve struggled with previous 3G networks. 5G takes the speeds and possibilities of 4G and multiplies them tenfold. This means that there’s a lot of businesses that might pop up that we’re not even aware of, perhaps entirely new industries,” said A Shiju Rawther, Chief Information & Technology Officer, Care Ratings.
Data consumption to increase manifold
Data-intensive technologies will likely be brought into the public space through 5G, like artificial intelligence, internet of things, among others.
“The internet of things is also a speciality that seems particularly suited for 5G technology. Currently IoT is being heavily used in the manufacturing sector to track factories, as well as being used in the transportation sector to track fleets.
Smart home devices also fall into the IoT realm, but lower-powered wi-fi networks struggle when you have too many devices connected to them.
5G has the potential to be faster than any wired wi-fi network and it can be virtually anywhere – as long as you get the signal there. That means that IoT devices can function anywhere, without being constrained to local wireless networks,” added Rawther.
Smart Cities
He further underlined that this becomes particularly interested in two use cases: smart cities and global connectivity. Addressing the latter first, 5G has the potential to give underserved populations across the world access to high-speed internet.
That means that people in otherwise remote places can get jobs in tech, or really anything through the potential the internet provides. Focusing on smart cities though, IoT for everything would allow cities to track their inner workings like never before.
Deep neural networks and AI could be utilized to perfectly map and alleviate congestion in traffic flows, it could manage maintenance for infrastructure, it could make sure taxis were already where you needed them based on pedestrian density.
Ultra-high-speed networks not tied to the locality are a big deal and they pose a lot of potential for our cities, infrastructure, and rural populations.
5G networks enable service providers to create virtual networks customized to applications requirements such as, Internet of Things (IOT), Machine-to-Machine connectivity in Manufacturing, Automobile, Smart cities, Healthcare and Transportation industry, mobile-based broadband, a real-time application which requires Reliable low latency like Autonomous Vehicle, Connected devices, Communication, anywhere access.
“5G network will provide features of faster data transmission speed with high volume, reduced battery consumption, cost reductions, higher system capacity and increased device connectivity.
It uses Ultra-Wide Band networks at low energy levels which can support multiple machine-to-machine connections and mobile broadband. Usage of higher mobile frequency by 5G network, leads to increased performance. Some of higher frequency usage commonly are at Point to Point radio link etc.
For any mobile network, this is something new. The 5G network also uses frequency with low- and mid-frequency spectrum that is currently used by other systems like 2G, 3G and 4G,” said Krishnamurthy Rajesh, Digital Transformation & Innovation leader.
He further added that another advantage of 5G network is with reduced latency of approx. 1 millisecond latency, is an initial delay between user’s action and associated response.
It is a critical concept that affects the experience of smartphones and connected- device users. High latency connections will result in slow loading of web pages, and applications which require real time connectivity like voice & video calling, gaming etc.
Average human reaction time falls between approx. 200 – 280 milliseconds. With a lower latency of 1millisecond with a 5G network, we can use it for real time interaction.
These are certainly concerns around data privacy. However, like any emerging technology in the 21st century, that’s always an issue. We’ll work through those growing pains into something sustainable, opined Rawther