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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1436922
Speed - 5G Will Open the Complete Content Pipeline By Andy Marken Back in 1986 when Top Gun first hit the screen, we heard those oft quoted words spoken, “I feel the need, the need for speed.” And when our daughter walks out of the theater after seeing Maverick and pulls out her iPhone to connect with the world, she might say the same thing. Getting blistering 5G performance will be a crapshoot at best. Sure, the 5G icon may light up but big deal, our phone will light up its 5GE icon (eventually) and we’ll both be on a 4G LTE network. That’s sorta okay because good marketing is good marketing. Despite the sluggish year, CCS Insight projects 5G networks worldwide will triple this year to 670 million and are on track to reach 3.6 billion in 2025. Our issue is we’d rather be like people in other parts of the world and pay for performance, not their brilliant, persistent marketing. Flavors of 5G are steadily spreading around the globe with considerable progress made this past year in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Austria, France, Turkey, India, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, Russia and well, everywhere including the U.S. The problem is there are three kinds of 5G — low-band, mid-band and high-band. While the US put its bet on low and high, CCS analysts and others believe mid-band may be the best way to do the faster, more reliable service. Low-band 5G operates below 2GHz (the older cellular and TV frequencies), so it performs like 4G. Mid-band 5G is in the 2–10GHz range that covers most of today’s cellular and wi-fi frequencies commonly used around the globe. High-band 5G or mmWave is mostly airwaves in the 20-100GHz range with very short range – 800 +/- feet between towers – and very fast speeds (Verizon’s ultra-wideband 800MHz) but very limited coverage.