Who has never dreamed of instant, ubiquitous communications? The leap from analog to digital mobile technology was already a major step in the race for the implementation of information and communication infrastructures that, over the years, have become faster, more flexible and more reliable.
Three decades later, the deployment of fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, scheduled for deployment in Europe in 2020, undoubtedly represents a leap of leap over the first digitized networks (1G, 2G...), and are called to radically transform our online experience.
Characterized by its ability to connect people but also to massively link objects (IoT), ultrafast networks, which are already being tested in Spain, Italy and UK, open the door to as many applications as the human mind can imagine.
According to experts, 5G networks will support virtual or augmented reality applications that will provide users with immersive experiences and bring about new products and services, and innovative businesses or industries. The new speeds will allow to automate business processes, from planning to logistics to development, also raising efficiency and minimizing costs.
With an availability greater than 99%, the new 5G networks will generate very positive impacts on the productivity of people and the competitiveness of companies due to the huge amount of data they can transport at speeds of up to 10 Gbps (about 100 times faster than 4G), which will undoubtedly contribute to improving the user experience. They will also reduce energy consumption by around 90%, and extend the life of the batteries.
Once their commercial deployment begins, institutions and companies, regardless of the sector to which they belong, will be able to face their digital transformation with greater guarantees of success, relying on ultra-fast networks in which latency will be only a thing of the past.
Applications for everything and everyone
The 5G mobile network will be the infrastructure on which the most innovative applications and services will run. Health networks, connected and autonomous cars, streaming, cloud, robotics, automation, virtual and augmented reality, smart factories will become widespread thanks to the capabilities of real-time communications with the thousands of devices that interconnect 5G.
For example, the retail, real estate, or online health sector will use virtual reality to, respectively, facilitate purchases to its customers, organize visits to properties for sale or study diseases, their causes and treatments, which may be prescribed on remote.
The security sector also streamlines their processes by incorporating real-time applications biometric authentication, online cameras, sensors, IoT or drones. In the same way that financial services will be able to extend among their clients the advantages of carrying out their transactions through mobile phones.
Another area that will play for the high capacity and low latency of the new networks is access to audiovisual content, facilitating downloading entire movies in less than 10 seconds.
The tourism and marketing sectors will also be able to offer immersive experiences in real-time to their target audiences thanks to 5G. And the automotive industry, with information collected and transmitted by IoT sensors, will be able to achieve the dream of the connected car, in which the driver makes informed decisions to avoid incidents. Over time, the 5G networks will make the autonomous car a reality, which will definitely replace the driver, and in the longer term, why not, the flying car.