Our future may not be quite so tethered to wired standards, and with mobile’s 5G on the way, a new report highlights just how this technology could change everything.
If you thought your new mobile and its high-speed connectivity as it is now offered the best a smartphone could connect online, think again, because it is quite literally the tip of the iceberg.
As telcos start to test the next standard, 4G’s high-speed internet access will likely start to look slow, at least in comparison, and that’s not just because of a need for speed.
Called “5G”, it’s the next generation of wireless connections, and it touts speeds between 5 and 20 gigabits — speeds that technically rock 625 megabytes to 2.5 gigabytes per second — and that’s just the beginning. The more speed on offer, the more bandwidth available, making it possible to connect more devices in your home and business, and opening up our world to the proper Internet of Things.
You may not have heard about this technology, but it is essentially where gadgets are going, as bits and pieces that might normally be simple parts of your home become switched on, allowing you to control them remotely.
There are smart lightbulbs that you can control outside of the home and on holiday, smart speakers that you can talk to, smart sensors that can trigger lights for you, smart cameras that will watch over your home, smart appliances that can be controlled remotely, and even a smart lock that can open the door based on its proximity to your smartphone.
Simply put, the Internet of Things makes the world smarter, but you need a fair amount of bandwidth to put all of this into action, and that is quite possibly where mobile 5G access comes in.
While the NBN may end up taking its time to roll out across Australia — something receiving its fair share of finger pointing at present time — mobile access is steadily improving, as telecommunication networks like Telstra, Vodafone, Optus, and TPG pile a heap of money into this area where growth will be.
In fact, in the past week, Deloitte released a report commissioned by Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) citing just where the technology will likely take the nation, and the expectations are staggering, adding jobs, automating technologies, and throwing money into the economy.
For consumers, however, the information is more about how 5G will enable us to do more.
We’ve all seen the science fiction imagery of a world where encompasses every action, and with 5G support, that may well come to fruition.
“5G will deliver the next dimension in mobile broadband with a much more responsive performance in terms of speed and capacity,“ said Chris Althaus, CEO of AMTA.
“In addition consumers will see 5G support the Internet of Things including smart homes and cities and ultimately innovations like autonomous vehicles,” he said.
“This represents an evolution that will feature the ‘industrial internet’ which will greatly expand and diversify the range and impact of mobile applications and services.”
So what does this mean for you?
It’s a sign that within the next few years, your mobile won’t only get faster, but everything you know will have a reason to connect to the cloud, using the vast processing power of interconnected computers and powering all manner of modern technology that feel like they’ve walked out of a stitch in time from the future.
That will include the likes of self-driving cars, more connected components at home that aim to secure and smarten up your habitat, and create an augmented reality that will actually provide you with information about what you’re viewing as smartglasses and more wearables connect to this always-on world being more closely envisioned by 5G.
And that’s good news, because it means that when this does roll out, you should see more connectivity with everything in your life.
