It’s not a gimmick…I repeat, it’s not a gimmick and it’s just as insanely fast as they have bragged about it. In fact, many other tech journalists have gone near testing sites of the 5G modules to see how great the network is and of course it was insane. While early adopters smartphones heats up quite lightly, it means the farther you go away from those modules the harder it becomes for your smartphone to reach the network because of the shortwaves.
But that aside, the beginning of the year 2019 saw an insane craze about the whole 5G thing when carriers like Verizon came out to brag about how awesome the 5G Network would change the world and the future of humanity altogether.
Like “WOW” that would’ve been amazing only if that promise could be delivered just soon and then Samsung made everything worst when it released the most anticipated Galaxy S10 series which also includes the special edition, the S10 5G which is even more expensive.
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Then the whole Huawei drama happened putting a slow down to the implementation of the 5G network rollout in the US for example and because US also enjoyed it’s allies to boycott Huawei’s 5G roll-out, I smelled some fish immediately.
Notwithstanding, the 5G roll-out is still taking place anyway and Huawei never hesitated to partner up with Russia and even Angela Markel invited the company into the German territory to start the implementation.
But you might wonder why the story is suddenly becoming about Huawei rather than being about the 5G network. You’re right to ask because Huawei has one of the largest 5G telecommunication equipments and infrastructures in the whole world and Huawei sells them cheaper than the rest like Nokia and Ericson.
But then the issue of political meddling as well as backdoors became a serious issue. And why shouldn’t it be after all no one love their data and information to be shared by some unknown entity in some far-eastern nation who are constantly monitoring all what you’re doing and who you’re talking to.
Huawei denied these claims but whether they did or not, Huawei’s 5G roll-out in the US is grounded already leading them to be blacklisted as an entity. But the world has to keep rotating around the sun right. Yeah life goes on.
Which I guess probably led to the premature 5G network roll-out throughout the US leading to so many cities lacking the coverage. The network was insanely fast but super-limited in how far it could go or what range it could cover. 5G smartphones aren’t ready either as their batteries met untimely demise due to the overstretch of the network.
Aside the fact that carriers overpromised to circulate the 5G network nationwide made people jump to the 5G smartphone bandwagon which ultimately was soon short circuited due to insane underperformances.
“Carriers made it sound like 5G would dominate the world in 2019/2020,” said Lopez Research analyst Maribel Lopez. “The reality is that we’ve seen a few phones and a few cities deployed.”
How far can we go would have been better than who rolls it out first which is probably the case with the carriers all racing to be the first adopter of the 5G network in the states but they all failed insanely.
The Slow 5G adoption globally
The moment country governments started meddling with the 5G network I knew again that the global adoption of this thing could take another 2 years. I mean why do governments need to be skeptical about a network that is thought of being the starting point in wireless communication.
The answer lies in what 5G is capable of. Low-Latency! Yeah everybody says that every time and the term is somewhat becoming over used to some point. But if you think about it, Low-latency is what makes the 5G network insanely fast.
Due to it’s flexibility, the exchange of data over the network is super fast that the Request and Download period is shortened to like 1 milliseconds…Just imagine that.
That is where connected smart cities comes in. Yeah any country that decides to spy on it’s citizens had just gotten a handy tool to do so. China is a great Government Spy station with loads of CCTVs everywhere as well as constant police monitoring all around corners wherever you turn.
The fact that communication can be done within seconds means that more smart devices can be connected to the cloud to access data and process information. Which leads to Self-Driving cars, smart home appliances and gadgets, healthcare and smart cities.
5G is already in test mode in some African nations and that is a big improvement and also in Asia. European countries aren’t left behind and the US is also on the run for it which means that the global adoption might be faster than my prediction 2021.
The rat race for who comes first
It wasn’t a surprise when AT&T changed it’s 4G LTE network to display 5GE at the beginning of this year. And just like that, 4G smartphones suddenly started displaying 5GE where the LTE logo would usually sit.
This led to many people getting confused about the meaning of this and even led to some serous legal battle between Sprint and At&T as the company tried hard to explain what the so-called evolutionary path to 5G meant.
AT&T’s desperation soon showed how insane marketing technique major carriers are putting in place ust to come first as a 5G early adopter even if the network behind the mask is actually a 4G LTE which is a sort of improved 4G network.
AT&T already screwed up and was probably too ashamed to comment immediately after confusing majority of the populace with their gimmicky marketing tactics which didn’t go well enough or maybe they could offer another explanation.
“We continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible with existing network technologies, and results throughout 2019 in studies like Ookla and GWS show that AT&T’s best nationwide network, accessible on over 20 devices, outperforms our competitors,” said an AT&T spokesman. I’m not convinced.
Ironically, Sprint, which is saddled with the reputation for poor service, has the most robust network in the few cities it operates in. It’s using mid-band spectrum, a sweet spot that gives you a mix of better speed and wider coverage. It’s also the type of spectrum that most of the world outside of the US is using. But given its financially strapped situation and the fact that it’s waiting for T-Mobile to snap it up, it’s hard to seriously consider.
Globally, we saw similar results our expansive tests. In the UK and Australia, coverage offered big jumps in speeds, but big coverage gaps too. South Korea, however, performed the most consistently. Our overall conclusion: 5G had a long way to go.
Considering 5G smartphone?
If you can afford one go for it. But remember Google and Apple never wasted their money trying to build some “iPhone 11 Pro Max 5G” maybe we’ll see that next year but who knows.
But the point I’m making is that 5G smartphones are expensive and not perfect yet. Remember early generations usually suck just as the case of the Galaxy Fold which broke months ago. Or maybe I’m just being too skeptical about everything.
But why shouldn’t I be. The fact that 5G in itself is quite complicated is something to note. The 5G utilizes different bands of spectrum such as the UWV that was brought in by Verizon that will enhance Millimeter wave spectrum which will offer super fast speed at really short range.
“Think a glorified Wi-Fi hotspot with speeds that let you download whole seasons of Game of Thrones in minutes.”
To me, 5G smartphones as of now is still a big “NAY” and you should proceed with caution if you think you want to really adopt one yourself.
We head to 2020 with hopes
2020 will be different definitely as we set into a newer decade, technology as we know it will never be the same. Smartphones will work with 5G network and IoT devices will become more popular. More global carriers are already working on building the 5G network infrastructures that will make the network circulate throughout nations on the earth.
Since global adoption is what matters, the fact that who adopted it first is currently useless. I mean no one cares if you did some gimmicky marketing strategies just to score some cards.
And with many changes to the network which they said might slow down the network a bit because the coverage has to be stretched out to cover more locations. The truth remains that 5G network will do as much as we hope it will or even better. So remote jobs self driving cars and even smart gadgets will now be more synced never like before.
It’s a revolution and it’s happening at the beginning of a new decade which will be more super tech centric in every ways. I’m ready and so should you be as well because this changes is what will shape the future of smart communication for ever.
