5G is ON. What’s the fuss all about!

5G is the fifth generation of mobile communication technology that allows us to access information at very high speeds. Theoretically speaking 5G has the potential of reaching speeds of upto 10GB per second!

The telecommunication company Huawei through its technology holds the world record for the fastest tested 5G speeds at close to 3GB per second. This means at this speed you can download 3 standard 1GB movies in just about 1 second on your phone!

Its not just the speed, Huawei has invested alot of resources in 5G research leaving its competitors far behind in race to deliver faster internet speeds. 5G being a very promising technology, it has awakened interest in political circles making it a very touchy subject.

Is that all there is to it – faster download speeds! Why would world super powers be fighting over download speeds? There is got to be more to it than just download speeds.

Our lives are increasingly being simplified by Digital technology fundamentally changing how we think, work, play and relate with each other.

There are a number of emerging technologies that hold very good prospects to change our lives for the better such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Robotics, Blockchain, and Internet of things (IoT). Their applications are relevant in medicine, education, business, government and just about every aspect of our lives.

Lets consider the idea of driver-less cars which are becoming common place today. The main challenge engineers face constantly in the design of driver-less cars is the limitation in communication. Self driving cars need to communicate with other cars, with traffic control, at the same time process video of pedestrians, obstacles, surroundings and be highly responsive at the same time.

5G to the rescue

All these technologies require very reliable high speed communication otherwise technically known us Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) delivered by 5G.

The world is increasingly moving towards implementation of digital technologies leading to a high demand for faster and more reliable communication as an enabler of these technologies.

5G is not a tangible end in itself, it’s a channel that unlocks the potential of all these technologies that have been held back for a long period by the limitation in communication speeds and reliability.

Imagine the possibilities!