“I hear the train a comin’
It’s rolling round the bend….”
-Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues
“Now arriving on cell phone track 3…..the 5G Express. This is an all tickets train folks with station stops everywhere. All aboard!”
This train will change everything we have come to expect in telecommunications, transformational as some experts say – even bigger than the automobile and electricity others claim.
With 5G, the combination of speed, responsiveness and reach could unlock the full capabilities of other hot trends in technology, offering a boost to self-driving cars, drones, virtual reality and the internet of things.
Here are just a few of the general expectations:
- Every cell phone can offer cheap, unlimited Internet access
- Internet speeds many times faster than 4G service
- 5G will also affect the Internet of things—it all speeds up.
- Augmented and virtual reality applications
- Remote surgery via teleoperation
- Tactile sensation of sights, sounds….etc.
- Self-driving cars and traffic control
- Health monitoring, especially for seniors
- Weather warnings, and forecasting
- Environmental monitoring
It’s all in the G’s!
Some of the first 5G phones could be in your pocket/purse in 2019, a full year ahead of earlier projections, and premiering first at highest speeds in big cities like the Big Apple and San Fran. 5G will work best with higher communication frequencies, thus more cell towers, closer spaced, will be needed. This could cause cluttering and aesthetic concerns in urban neighborhoods. Expect lawsuit challenges as it all shakes out.
Thomas Edison so respected the importance of information and knowledge, he placed his office in his corporate library. Imagine if he had a 5G wireless Internet connection and cell phone!
“Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose…”
Left: Intel-Edison module now available world-wide for developers. Right: The “Tommy” award given by the Edison Innovation Foundation.
