Wireless technology is advancing to new heights and will be a significant step in providing a speed boost to Internet connections. The promise of 5G is an Internet connection speed at least 10-100 times faster than the present connections, which means downloading a movie in seconds, and not the minutes that are required for today’s Internet speeds.
AT&T, with its partners Ericsson and Intel, made an announcement that it will be launching the fifth generation ultra speedy Internet connection and has laid out a roadmap for their plans to launch the technology in the coming years. Field trials will begin in Austin, Texas. Earlier this year, Verizon also made a similar announcement of beginning its field tests, but the industry doesn’t expect that it will be released anytime soon and will not be available until 2020.
The hype surrounding 5G technology is building because it offers all kinds of opportunities. Such a responsive network will let doctors perform robotic surgery remotely, and the increased Internet capacity will let VR videos and games to be streamed directly onto VR headsets. Such a high-speed connection will also be able to stream live super high definition videos to the television screens in your home.
John Donovan, chief strategy officer of AT&T, said in a statement, “New experiences like virtual reality, self-driving cars, robotics, smart cities and more are about to test networks like never before. 5G will help make them a reality.”
Some experts are also contending that the new technology will be much faster than the current wireless connectivity options available in the market and might be available at a much cheaper rate that will allow users to ditch their present broadband providers. AT&T has plans to introduce the 5G network connection to a limited number of homes. The unlimited connectivity option will be installed in a handful of homes by the end of this year.
Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, said in a statement, “What 5G will mean is that fixed wireless will become a realistic alternative or replacement for fixed Internet service, especially in rural America.”
If your current phone’s Internet speed is being measured in megabits per second, with 5G, it will be measured in gigabits per second, which is quite a step up from the current broadband providers in the country. Moreover, 5G networks are predicted to be more power-efficient. AT&T plans to focus more on the software side of the product and will enable the technology to adapt to the upgrade process without changing the equipment. The company plans to use the data gathered from Austin trials to distribute the technology to a widespread area, and eventually nationally.
