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How the Rollout of 5G Will Change Everything

Posted by samzenpus on from the sliced-bread-and-this dept.

mrspoonsi writes The global race is on to develop 5G, the fifth generation of mobile network. While 5G will follow in the footsteps of 4G and 3G, this time scientists are more excited. They say 5G will be different — very different. "5G will be a dramatic overhaul and harmonization of the radio spectrum," says Prof Rahim Tafazolli who is the lead at the UK's multimillion-pound government-funded 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey. To pave the way for 5G the ITU is comprehensively restructuring the parts of the radio network used to transmit data, while allowing pre-existing communications, including 4G and 3G, to continue functioning. 5G will also run faster, a lot faster. Prof Tafazolli now believes it is possible to run a wireless data connection at an astounding 800Gbps — that's 100 times faster than current 5G testing. A speed of 800Gbps would equate to downloading 33 HD films — in a single second. Samsung hopes to launch a temporary trial 5G network in time for 2018's Winter Olympic Games.

2 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Coverage by BrookHarty · · Score: 1, Interesting

    All those nice coverage maps show voice and doesnt include data. Rural areas have no native Internet providers, so often if they do have Internet its hauled in by microwave. I know this, the town my mother retired in shares brings in data so Verizon can vpn over it and provide data to the school and public libarary. It was great, verizon put in a tower and we had 4g and voice. But with people moving more into rual areas to retire, the bandwidth hasnt kept up with the usage, so now its down to voice only.

    The thing that really pisses me off, is we have underground power and smart meters to all these rural homes, but no internet over power. Even slow speed would be better than the dial up they use now.

  2. Why do we need 800Gbps? by MildlyTangy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why do we need 800Gbps on a cellphone? Or even 100Gbps?

    So I can download an app in 560 microseconds? I do not see the point. What possible use case is there for that much bandwidth, even if data caps went away (yeah right)..There is only so much you can do with a mobile device.

    Does it matter if I download an HD movie in 30mS instead of 400mS? Or even if I download a 4k movie in a fraction of a second, its still kinda pointless.

    Now I am fully aware that 640k is actually not enough memory for anybody, but come on guys, what sort of need would we really have for 800Gbps on a cellphone or tablet? There reaches a point where the returns diminish beyond human perception.