Steve Gold looks at how 5G connectivity – which is scheduled to arrive in a 2020 timeframe – will change the way we view Internet services, and how pervasive high-speed mobile services are a real business gamechanger.
It's now just over five years since Apple changed the world of the mobile Internet with the release of the iPhone and – driven by an explosion of smartphones – mobile connectivity is changing the way we live and work.
This is all thanks to 3G (third-generation) cellular technology but, already, we are seeing the world's cellular networks rolling out a more advanced system known as 4G that is both faster and far more flexible than the current crop of 3G services, moving us firmly into a world of HD TV, movies and other high-definition content on the move.
But the mobile – and content - industry is already starting to discuss what comes after 4G: a 5G service that will see us enter the world of pervasive and always-connected mobile services.
By pervasive, I mean that the service will be ubiquitous, and available to everyone at almost every point in a given country or territory - regardless of whether they are indoors or outdoors, in the city or in the depths of the countryside.
This level of pervasive coverage will allow electrical manufacturers to include Internet connectivity as a standard feature and, according to Mark Heraghty, MD, Virgin Media's Business, we will then start to usher in the world of the connected home and office.
We are, he says, moving beyond the realms of people-to-people (P2P) and people-to-machine (P2M) communications and firmly into the world of machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity, with the fridge being able – quite literally – to research online and tell the oven or microwave what the cooking requirements are for the item(s) that the householder has just removed from the freezer.
Likewise in businesses, office equipment will be able to intelligently monitor itself and advise relevant staff of when things are starting to go wrong - offering them the option of communicating the problem to a third-party or an in-house maintenance person.
"With the lines between consumer and business technology blurring more every day, it's understandable that different devices interacting and communicating with one another moves out of the home and into the office. Organisations are always looking to become more agile and implement infrastructure that helps to take away menial tasks from workforces, enabling them to then focus on the core business. 5G and better fixed networks will help to usher in a new era of technology that will be geared towards solving problems and handling issues without any interruption to business services," he says.
Furthermore, he adds, because connectivity will be pervasive, a communications feature can be integrated into every single electrical device in much the same way that a three-pin mains plug is fitted to most appliances, since manufacturers will be able to assume a basic level of connectivity throughout the lifetime of the unit.
Heraghty goes on to say that the technical challenges of rolling out 5G wireless services – such as base station installations and network backhaul issues – are complex, but are ultimately solvable, providing the will is in place at national levels.
"This really is a game-changer for businesses as it will make life so much easier at all levels. Pervasive connectivity moves technology away from the will enable everyone to reap the benefits of the latest devices and mobile technology," he explained, adding that businesses will be able to enjoy Internet access at speeds measured well into gigabits-per-second (Gbps) territory.
According to Rob Bamforth, a principal analyst with Quocirca, the business and research house, just as smartphones have driven 3G mobile connectivity forward by pushing demand for mobile bandwidth through the roof, the same thing is gong to happen with 4G and, by implication, 5G.
Perhaps more importantly, he says, the development pace of devices supporting 5G services will be extremely rapid, offering existing generations of device users a world of connectivity that will be a must-have attraction.
"There is likely to be an inertia in the mobile system at first - largely due to infrastructure issues - but this will be countered by the ongoing lack of capacity on 3G services – and by implication, 4G services. This is why, for example, most mobile voice traffic goes via 2G networks, even though most 3G users are unaware of this happening," he says.
"For this reason, I don't foresee a time when the existing 2G and 3G networks will ever be switched off, even though ultra-fast 5G and super-fast 4G wireless networks will handle most user's – and device's – mobile communications," he adds.
Bamforth - who has been analysing the development of mobile communications since its earliest days in the 1980s – goes on to say that, whilst there will be a strong appetite for 4G and 5G services, whether the cellular industry can pay for yet another network is another matter.
Of course, he says, all the cost/revenue equations change if the 5G service is pervasive, as the economics start to move into the world of utilities, since blanket coverage will be a key expectation, for everyone involved.
M2M services, he adds, are a powerful driver here, but the 5G networks will have to have an 'everywhere' capability for electrical device manufacturers to including mobile connectivity as standard.
The most interesting aspect of pervasive 5G, he notes, is that it allows for the arrival of layered charging, with usages costs moving beyond today's time and data speed calculations and into tiered speed-based charging.
"You might even have a universal basic relatively slow-speed service offered free-of-charge - or at a very low cost - to every device, and then tariffs would be tiered upwards as the speed of data communications goes up," he says.
"With a tiered charging model, based on speed of access as the primary charging methodology, you start to get a viable business model evolving, especially if just one organisation is responsible for the network rollout, with suitable government regulation," he adds.
But installing wireline networks costs money and is only viable if there are sufficient potential users. This is why rural Internet users have had to wait for higher speeds of access. With a tiered speed-based pricing model, pervasive 5G services can be available to everyone, with users choosing what speeds they wish to pay for.
Giving business users – and consumers – a menu of 5G services that are available everywhere is the best way forward. Users can then decide what they wish – and do not wish – to pay for. All we have to do is to develop the technology and the network infrastructure.
