What is 5G?

Jim Machi : Industry Insight
Jim Machi

What is 5G?

5G.jpg

In my 2015 predictions blog, I predicted we’d start to see much more about 5G. As I said in that blog, 5G is a concept that seems to have sprung from “OK, We Rolled out LTE, Now What’s Next?” coupled with “A Major Mobile Next Gen Network Comes Along Every 10 Years, So We Need the Next One in 2020”.  But there are no specs about 5G yet. 

 So what can we expect from 5G?

1. First, speed will be important.  It is easy to predict that people will continue to watch more video and probably even start to do gaming on their mobile networks like they do with the current wired networks.  So bandwidth and speed improvements will be critical.

2. Coverage.  Can 5G cover more areas than 4G? 

3. Security.  As more and more people start to use their mobile phones for transactions, can we make the network more secure?

4. Lower Network costs.  As we all know, rolling out and implementing new networks is great for the user, but it does cost money.  Are there ways in the new network topology to lower the costs.  NFV obviously is one way to do this, so I’d expect NFV to be a large part of the 5G concepts.  But there could and should be other ways as well.

5. Battery life.  It may sound strange, as most of us are used to plugging in our phones every night to charge up.  But I remember I could go a week (before video) before I could charge my phone.  As our mobile devices become more and more important, and we use them all the time, battery life will be important.  Every interaction with the network requires battery.

5G is just a concept.  5G is an expectation.   5G is nothing yet.  5G is everything.  5G is all of that.

 

 



Related Articles to 'What is 5G? '
Next Gen Diameter Signaling controller.jpg
wordy.jpg
4G diameeter pic.png
Dialogic Fax Smartphone.jpg

Featured Events