5G is the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular network that phone companies began deploying in 2019. The Federal Communications Commission has to date received bids for 5G frequency that has exceeded $69.8 billion. Wireless carriers, cable companies and others critically need these airwaves to support millions of devices at ultrafast speeds. Analysts predict that by 2025, 5G networks will have more than 1.7 billion subscribers worldwide.
Why is 5G important? It will provide a paradigm shift, a game-changer! The beauty of 5G is its ability to flexibly support future services that are unknown today. Going forward, all human activity will be digitized.
It will revolutionize data-based communication across the globe, allowing downloads 100 times faster than what is available with a 4G connection. 5G will enable the download of a two-hour movie in fewer than 10 seconds versus around 7 minutes with 4G.
5G will provide greater bandwidth, improved real-time responses, enhanced connectivity and reduced latency. Latency refers to the lag time between a device pinging the network and getting a response. These features will give users the potential to experience new, innovative technologies.
5G will enable new applications, catalyze the founding of start-up industries and dramatically improve the quality of life around the world because of its instantaneous connectivity.
It will provide new applications for mobile communications, the health industry, autonomous vehicles, smart cities and smart homes. By 2035, 5G will enable $12.3 trillion of global economic output and support 22 million jobs worldwide.
Michio Kaku, who for 50 years has been passionate about continuing Albert Einstein’s search for a “Theory of Everything,” believes that 5G has the same potential for changing the world as the printing press that led to the Renaissance. In brief, 5G will change almost everything and connect nearly everybody. It will break down the barriers between the rich and the poor, between cities and the countryside.
5G will provide access from almost everyone everywhere to the best surgeons, who can treat patients remotely in real time.
5G offers the possibility for self-driving vehicles to be connected to other self-driving cars. Cars can exchange their location, speed, acceleration, direction and steering faster than we can blink. Such breakthroughs will be important lifesaving technologies. A driver will know that a truck five vehicles ahead suddenly brakes or another car turns into your blind spot.
Kaku predicts that 5G will pump up the economy and the job market, making us more productive. Just like Uber owes its success to the improvement in data speed from 3G to 4G, 5G will raise the bar again to new businesses providing services that we would never have dreamed possible.
We need to understand the downside risks of 5G. Chuck Bane, academic director for the University of San Diego’s online Master of Science in Cyber Security, said, “One of the fundamental challenges of 5G involves balancing its far-reaching potential for human progress against the significant new security risks presented by this extraordinary technological breakthrough.” 5G will enrich and empower high-speed malicious hackers, supercharging their ability to wreak untold havoc in the global cybercrime epidemic.
At the University of Texas, I had the privilege of taking a course under the scholar Clarence Ayres. Ayres was an institutional economist who focused on the evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping economic behavior.
Throughout our history, there persists a struggle between technology and ceremonial structure. Technology represents the opportunity for advancement while the latter can impede change.
Currently, we face formidable challenges in the wake of COVID-19 and our ongoing political divisions. However, the prospect of innovations such as 5G provide rational reasons for optimism. Warren Buffett spoke for all of us: “Nothing can basically stop America.”
Originally published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
