5G Will Become the New Standard by 2020
Trust our species to think ahead. 4G has yet to establish itself firmly around the world and now news has reached our ears that plans on 5G mobile network is very much on. The UN said on Thursday that member countries have approved the roadmap for the development of the next generation of mobile networking – 5G.
Needless to say, 5G mobile networks will promise lightening-fast downloads and will also help bring driverless cars closer to reality. The future 5G technology will supposedly deliver data speeds up to 1,000 times faster than the current 4G network. Just when you thought such speeds were too farfetched for the present. But a lot can happen in 4 years.
UN’s 193 member countries have approved the plan and are now working on how to harmonise the development of the next-gen networks. Sanjay Acarya, spokesman for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) told AFP that the UN agency is “looking at a 2020 timeframe” for rolling out 5G networks.
Interestingly, many countries have yet to harness the potential of 4G networks. India, too, is far behind in the 4G game. The need is to build infrastructure that can carry mobile signals quickly, consistently, and reliably so as to support split-second activities. Spectrum allocation is the biggest concern and the UN member countries will have to decide how much spectrum can be allocated for this at next month’s World Radiocommunication Conference.
It has been estimated by Boston Consulting Group earlier this year that mobile companies will need to spend $4.0 trillion on research and investments by 2020 to develop 5G.
