So far, one of our many predictions about what will be a hot topic at CES next January, is 5G. Hands down, this will be one of the technologies that are going to significantly help shape things to come in technology. I’m talking on the level of a regular spinning hard drive vs a PCIe NVMe M.2 drive. The difference is massive, and it is going to soon power everything around us.
So, what is 5G? We have made our way through the various networks, covering 3G, 4G, and 4G LTE in recent years. Each time we saw speeds get faster, multitasking becomes more than just a possibility, and we became surrounded by unlimited data plans and high-definition content. With each network, things got a little bit more reliable, one step at a time. However, when 5G becomes a standard, you will see so much more. You will see instant response times in your connectivity, along with a massive upgrade for how many devices can ride the wave without dragging things down. In fact, everything around you will become connected and be able to communicate.
A street full of connected cars will be able to communicate live with the traffic system. Lights, traffic analytics, emergency services, etc–all talking to each other with (near) zero latency. Your doctor will be able to perform surgery on you remotely from the opposite side of the world, as if he was standing right next to you. These are just a few examples, and all of it is thanks to the massively faster data rates that 5G promises.
With 5G, it will be like having a fiber connection in the sky all around you (if everything works when it all comes together). With the sheer amount of connected devices growing every day, we will need it. Gartner predicts that by 2020, you will have over 21 billion devices around the world, connected to the internet. That’s a lot!
The most exciting thing we can’t wait for, is that with 5G, we should be able to stream incredibly high-definition VR experiences wirelessly. Ready Player One, here we come! It’s a good thing that HTC released a title called Oasis that is themed around the movie/book, and continues to work on it. You never know, this might actually become a reality in the near future.
Automation, robotics, VR/gaming, medical, education, and so much more is always going to evolve to a new level when we roll out a great platform for it all to piggyback on. So when that new level becomes larger than any upgrade we have ever seen, you can easily assume how that is going to affect everything else.
Of course, it is still going to be a short wait until you see this become a standard. Carriers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, are still working hard at planning out their rollouts. However, new phone models are starting to pop up that will be launching next year, with the planned support for 5G (such as Samsung’s Galaxy S10). So we can at least rest comfortably knowing that next year will mark the beginning of it all. Let’s just hope that ends up being everything it promises to the world.
