5G Wireless Is Coming Soon

Last Wednesday, Verizon announced that it intends to launch their next generation in wireless internet, 5G ‘wireless fiber’ pilot program, to some degree in 2017. Verizon will start testing connections at ranges of less than 500 yards for high-usage locations.

With mobile data consumption at an all-time high, social media, on-demand video streaming, SMART devices, and the technological advances with  ‘Internet of Everything’ (IoE), current standards would soon fall behind as the increase of connectivity demands more data, and connection reliability.

5G would provide much higher throughput and significantly lower latency than the current 4G LTE networks provide. It is expected to have a download speed approaching 1 gigabit per second, some 50 times faster than 4G technology. It's also stated that 5G would be a cheaper option to provide high speed broadband access to residents than current fiber optic services.

The next-generation technology will eventually be defined in a standard that will be known as “5G.” It is expected to provide Internet connections at least 40 times faster and with at least four times more coverage worldwide than the current standard, known as 4G LTE. 

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The new technology providing 5G connection is expected to use ‘millimeter wave’ radio spectrum, or wavelengths above 24GHz. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the spectrum for 5G advances in the US on July 14, 2016, making more of the spectrum available for commercial use, paving the way for Verizon’s 5G pilot program next year. 

MIT’s Technology Review stated, “Higher-frequencies carry significantly more data. But they are also far more easily blocked by buildings, foliage, and even rain, making their use for mobile communications quite challenging.” However, with advances in signal processing, chips, and antenna technologies, Samsung, Nokia, Verizon, and other companies will be able to use this spectrum for next-generation mobile connectivity.

 Intel chip: "massive antenna array," 

incl. 64 antennas, expansions to 256.

Using Arrays of tiny antennas on chips or on miniature circuit boards can steer signals in specific directions (known as phased array), in order to mitigate this downside.

“Underpinning the new wireless technologies are remarkable advances in microchips. First, the smaller feature size on chips will allow much more data processing without killing off your battery. And second, such chips are being overlaid with a second layer of materials that act as antennas, minimizing signal loss and energy consumption,” according to MIT’s Technical Review.

It was originally speculated that 5G would not roll out commercially until the earliest 2020. However, progress seems to be accelerating and we could have public access to the new technology a lot sooner, with 5G enabled devices expected to become commercially available within the next 2 years.