5G is here, but where are the killer apps?

 

Now that 5G networks are here and more mature, we're enjoying high-quality video, lag-free gaming and even wireless-based home internet. But it's the wild ideas of 5G that really got everyone excited about the technology in the first place. Things like connected cars that can talk to each other and avoid fender benders, or fancy augmented reality glasses that can guide you in virtual directions through a fully connected smart city.

However, this progress will only be possible when 5G networks are built enough to provide reliable and high-speed connections. We're not there yet.

"It's a whole different ball game in terms of reliable high speed and greater ability to serve more customers at the same time," said Phil Solis, research director for connectivity and smartphone semiconductors at analysis firm IDC.

Therein lies the dilemma with 5G and what we'll eventually be able to do with these high-powered networks: Companies continue to promise revolutionary leaps in various aspects of technology, using better wireless networks as the foundation. can But until these networks actually improve on a large scale, much of it will remain talk or limited-scale experimentation.

The good news is that carriers are putting in the work. Although millimeter wave, or mmWave, provides the absolute highest 5G speeds, it covers a smaller area than other types of 5G, so it's only used in certain parts of cities and event spaces. Is. Low-band 5G is much faster than current 4G LTE networks in the U.S., although it can reach suburban and rural users farther. Midband 5G is the sweet spot, providing not only high speeds, but also allowing many people to access the network over large distances at the same time.

Most global networks are largely built on mid-band 5G, but US carriers have a mix of all three. Midband 5G consists mostly of T-Mobile's 5G network, which operates on the 2.5GHz frequency, while Verizon and AT&T are activating their C-band and other midband frequency 5G service throughout this year.

Along with these network developments, plus the addition of internet providers and cloud computing companies to bring servers closer to people, 5G could change how we entertain, among others. Connect and move around in our own world -- at least as far as we can imagine. We probably won't discover the best uses for 5G until high-speed networks deliver fast, reliable service in cities, suburbs and rural areas.

5G at home and on wheels

Smartphones have been connected to 5G since 2019, and as networks have improved, video streaming and gaming have improved with faster connections. Beyond devices, 5G will expand connectivity at home and on the road.

Home internet on 5G reaches speeds comparable to wired broadband internet, and once 5G networks are ready -- again, carriers are waiting for mid-band 5G to take off. Coverage can be extended to more areas -- it can be used in buildings that don't have high-speed wired Internet and in rural areas that still operate with dial-up or DSL.

Every US carrier has its own 5G home internet service, although AT&T only offers it in select areas. Verizon and T-Mobile are expanding to offer their respective services, but they still don't offer them everywhere their faster 5G connections are available. Compared to their mobile subscriber base, not many customers have signed up for wireless Internet either -- Verizon had about 433,000 fixed wireless subscribers in March and expects that to grow to 4 million or 5 million by 2025. will go, while T-Mobile announced it. It reached 1 million users in April and aims to reach 7 million by 2025.

Carriers still face an uphill battle in convincing consumers that 5G internet is at home at all, so they're offering the service at discounted rates. For example, T-Mobile charges $50 a month for home 5G Internet, a discount of up to $30 for eligible customers already signed up for Magenta Max mobile plans. Verizon's offering starts at $50 a month, though customers with Verizon's unlimited mobile plans can potentially save up to 50% on their monthly internet bills.

5G is also coming to the streets. Automotive 5G allows your car to connect to nearby 5G networks, essentially upgrading the capabilities of the 4G LTE car-to-network that enabled automatic accident detection and cloud services such as maps, route guidance, and more. and enabled things like traffic information.

5G networks could become the backbone of driverless travel. During CES 2021 in Las Vegas, startup Halo launched its car service, which picks up passengers in electric vehicles that are controlled by remote drivers using T-Mobile's 5G network.

But it also means regular cars will use the 5G spectrum to talk to each other hundreds of feet away with a technology called Sidelink to warn other cars about vehicles and pedestrians ahead. can go.

"I might be braking and other cars will be aware of that, and they might react faster," says IDC's Solis. Sidelinks are starting to be incorporated into automotive chipsets, so he expects the technology to approach mainstream adoption in 2024 or 2025.

The dream is for cars to talk to the roads around them in a similar way, perhaps warning of traffic or emergency vehicles around the corner and suggesting turning down the next street instead. It's not hard to imagine the benefits of cars getting real-time updates on road and city conditions. But to do that, they need to connect the neighborhoods and cities around them to 5G.

5G through your eyes

5G on the go will make something even more interesting: augmented reality. To get information about whatever you're looking at through your AR glasses, you'll need increased data speeds and reliable 5G connections. With such a connection, you can get an instant verbal translation of anything in your sight, as seen in the AR glasses concept shown at Google I/O 2022. Or AR elements can give you clear visual directions on your way to a destination. Google revealed this week that it has begun public testing of its new glasses.

Durga Malady, Qualcomm's general manager of cellular modems and infrastructure, told CNET that the complexities of connecting personal devices like AR glasses to larger networks have largely been resolved. The biggest hurdle is with battery life: Although the phones pack 4,000mAh and 5,000mAh capacity batteries in their large rectangular shapes, there's very little space on the glass frames for the larger battery packs, which can limit the amount of space available. How long can they stay connected to 5G networks?

"It's really more about being smart about how you're wired," Mlady said. "If all you're interested in is maybe sending some short messages from your glasses, you don't need gigabit speeds for that."

We'll almost certainly find out before one of the tech world's wildest predictions comes true -- leading analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will completely replace the iPhone within a decade. is working on a replacement with R, according to a note spotted by Macromers.

5G powers healthcare and smart cities

While 5G's faster download speeds are important to consumers, it's the lower latency of 5G networks that will enable the most advanced applications. Some of these, such as remote surgery, have made headlines for years, but reducing the delay between surgeon and patient will improve response and ideally outcomes. Add in AR/VR, and surgeons can feel closer to actually being in the room where the procedure is being performed.

"This type of application will only be possible because of this low-latency side of 5G," said Pro Sharma, senior analyst for devices and ecosystems at Counterpoint Research.

Remote surgery is just one aspect of telehealth, which has become more popular during the COVID pandemic as medical professionals look for more ways to treat patients remotely. Devices like the Butterfly IQ ultrasound monitor send data to health care providers via smartphones over mobile networks, and are so portable that one was recently brought to the International Space Station.

5G could simplify things elsewhere in traditional healthcare as well. In March 2021, AT&T turned on a local 5G network at the Lawrence J. Allison Institute for Transformative Medicine in Los Angeles to track patients and speed up the transfer of secure data for cancer research. TechRadar reports that UK carrier Virgin Media O2 has just turned on a private 5G network at London's Bethlem Royal Hospital, allowing staff to observe patients faster and more securely than a Wi-Fi network. Allowed to update record. Internet of Things, or IoT, sensors and tech will monitor medication temperature, air quality and room occupancy.

But 5G holds even more promise than where we live. Placing sensors on roads will warn these 5G-connected cars about traffic, while also monitoring environmental conditions to alert city workers of dangers.

These sensors will be cheaper with newer low capacity devices. RedCap devices deliberately slow down connectivity speeds to reduce their power consumption, opening the door to longer-lasting sensors and wearable devices as nodes in connected ecosystems. work on

"5G is going to be a game changer because it's already being built at breakneck speed and with the capacity in the network to create a piece for these types of services," said Peter Linder, Ericsson's head of 5G marketing in North America. Is."

The networks needed to support these city-wide applications will come much later than midband 5G networks, said IDC's Solis, especially after the proliferation of multi-access edge computing, which Moves processing from remote server farms to physical sites at the edges of the network. are closer to population and faster to access.

The acquisition of 5G networks is only part of what is about to usher in a new era of connectivity. Without these speeds and reliability, we can't imagine the best applications yet, because we're still thinking in terms of how we use phones with 4G LTE. In this era, it took some time for developers to figure out how to use the high mobile bandwidth for entirely new applications.

Solis compares how in the 3G days, our access to data on the go was so limited that we couldn't even imagine such things as ride-hailing apps, yet these days Uber and Lyft are fundamentally innovative. There are travel infrastructures.

"Nobody said, 'Oh, we need a faster network so we can (support ride-hailing apps),'" Solis said. "Networks and phones got faster, and then it's because Came because it was there. It's like an 'if you build it, they will come' mentality."