INDUSTRY EXPERT
MOBILE’S
NEXT GENERATION
As providers prepare to roll out 5G mobile technology, what does this mean for us?
A
generation ago, mobile video calls were the stuff of spy movies and
science fiction. Now, as mobile technology enters its fifth wave of
evolution, we’re stepping into a future that not even James Bond or
Star Trek could have imagined. And that’s not hype. Fifth-generation
(or 5G) mobile technology will deliver 10 times the reliability, 100
times the speed, and 1,000 times the capacity of the 4G tech we’re currently using.
And it’s not just about faster data speeds: it’s about enabling the fourth industrial
revolution of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the Internet of Things.
So how did we get from our old brick cell phones to AI, VR and IoT? Ryan van der
Bergh, senior specialist: Radio Access Network at MTN, explains:
Mobile technology has been developed since the 1970s and 1980s.
[…] Roughly once every 10 years we get a new generation of mobile
communication technology, and we’re now entering the fifth. The
first generation was mobile voice calls. When all the South African
operators launched in the 1990s we used 2G, which could do phone
calls and SMSs. Then along came the mobile internet, which brought
the third generation (3G). Then 4G brought LTE, or high-speed data .
5G’s KILLER APPS
Each generation had its ‘killer’ application. 5G will deliver three of those. The first,
Van der Bergh says, is data speed.
5G will offer enhanced mobile broadband, which will enable 4K
video streaming, and virtual reality mobile streaming, moving into
augmented or mixed reality. This involves massive amounts of
streaming data, which you can think of as huge ‘pipes’ in the sky .
The second is massive IoT technology. Van der Berg says:
Here you’ll get orders of magnitude of more devices, but each will
use small amounts of data. This technology will power smart cities
and smart homes. Think of it as tiny pipes in the sky, but lots and lots
of them – they estimate one million devices per square kilometre.
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