Over the past couple of months there literally has been an arms race by telecommunications provider about 5G, the next generation promising super fast speeds, super low latencies and so on. They are selling as the most amazing step in your mobile-phone experience and that you definitely are going to need and try as hard as they can to make you want it. In reality you neither need it, nor want to pay a premium for it and here’s why.
The current standard is 4G LTE and has a theoretical limit of reaching download speeds of 300 Mbps. There is now way you will ever have the need to require significantly more bandwidth anytime soon (4k streaming on Netflix needs around 25 Mbps). Does it really make that much of a difference downloading a movie in 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes?
To make this whole technology happen, telecommunications providers need to invest in a whole new infrastructure, which will be way more expensive to create and afterwards maintain. This is because 5G uses millimetre waves to transmit signals to you. 4G on the other hand uses wavelengths of several centimetres. What that means in practice is that the range of 5G frequencies (300m[Rfwireless, 2019]) is around 50 times lower than 4G frequencies (15 km). That means a ton of additional smaller cell towers scattered around everywhere. But that’s not all. The problem with 5G is that it is really bad at travelling through basically anything. Where with 4G you may have a connection inside of building, without direct line of sight of a 5G tower there is no physical possibility of connection.
Not only will this cost billions of euros for telecommunications providers in terms of infrastructure (that you will have to pay for eventually), the service will be significantly worse because it can’t travel through anything, but on top of that you didn’t even need or ask for that speed in the first place.
RfWireless, 2019
https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/5G-Speed-Vs-5G-Range.html
Interesting topic. Thanks for raising this issue! I indeed think that the benefits of 5G will not outweigh the costs for entertainment purposes. Also, the practical matters are not easily solved. As you mentioned, 5G is unable travel successfully through any objects. Furthermore, the signal is easily disrupted and has a narrow range. Therefore, we definitely have to consider whether investments in 5G should have priority.
However, I think that 5G will significantly impact the potential of emerging technologies such as autonomous driving and IoT applications. Imagine how smart traffic lights are enabled to talk with (autonomous) cars without any latency with 5G networks. This could significantly improve on major issue in the current world: traffic. Furthermore, to switch to a fully autonomous commuting society, the current levels of the 4G network are not sufficient. 5G has the potential to solve for this insufficiency.
Although there are some serious the practical issues concerning the implementation of 5G, I see this as a critical evolution for the implementation of the future technologies.