What is 5G? - Definition, Benefits & How Does 5G Network Technology Work

India’s wait for the 5G era ended recently when the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi in the Indian Mobile congress, announced the launch of the 5G technology. This announcement was well received by the communication service providers (CSPs) and the Indians alike. Jio, Airtel, BSNL and Vodafone Idea (VI), all announced their plans to push for a pan India 5G footprint by the end of 2023 or early 2024. And to achieve this the Govt has set a target of finishing 10,000 5G sites per week. This is a massive progress for the Indian telecom sector as 5G has a lot of potential to take India forward to its dream of a Digital India. The 5G technology will not just contribute to increased internet speed, but its potential also gives room for groundbreaking advancements in the workings of the IoT devices, gaming, robotics, smart homes and a lot more. In this article we will take a look into the working and the evolution of 5G, what exactly is it, and how it is going to be beneficial to India. 

What is 5G Technology?

The 5G technology is the hottest new thing in the Indian market. 5G is basically the Fifth Generation cellular network, the successor 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G technologies. 5G is expected to have a peak speed of 20-30 gbps, which is 20 to 30 times faster than 4G at just 1 gbps. Let’s put that into perspective, you can download an HD movie in less than 2 seconds. 

5G networks have been engineered to be virtualized and software oriented, which enables it to extract the most of the cloud technology. The low latency that it offers helps us to have a better digital experience. Businesses will be able to offer better experiences like in gaming, metaverse, self driving cars and be able to interact faster with the connected devices.

In India, 5G also has the potential to reach the rural regions where 4G failed. Allowing us to process data faster while being connected to the remote areas. This is thanks to the dense and distributed-access architecture. 

What can be Achieved with 5G?

If you think 5G is all about increased speed, then you are highly mistaken. High speed is just one aspect of the new 5G technology. It is true that this is the one aspect we will be dealing with the most, but there are a lot of long term implications of 5G. The 5G technology has the potential to bring the smart home revolution. Self driving cars in Indian traffic can become a reality, which can offer more safety and versatility. This will be possible thanks to 5G as it will improve the ability of one device’s interaction with another.  

Gaming experience will be at a new height. All you PUBG fans must rejoice, as you can expect at least 6 times faster ping while playing. And not just that, VR and AR technologies will see some massive improvements too. Have you ever wondered what it will be like to play PUBG in Virtual Reality? Well, it depends on Tencent but it is very much a possibility now thanks to 5G. 

The Internet of things or IoT, Robotics, Smart Vehicles, Smart homes, immersive gaming, smart homes, smart devices are some of the areas which will benefit greatly from 5G. 

How Does The 5G Technology Work?

5G New Radio is more capable of extracting the best of the 5G wireless air interface by using the undertapped Spectrum. The advances made throughout the 5G network architecture is quite impressive. The newer antennas are also capable of transferring more data at the same time. Thanks to a new technology which enables these antennas to have several transmitters and receivers, this technology is named massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output). 5G technology also promises to deliver more bandwidth for the users. 

Softwares is going to be the driving force behind the 5G architecture rather than hardwares. This will allow a better management of functionalities. The 5G architecture is powered by the recent advances in virtualisation, cloud tech, the IT sector, and automation of various business processes. With the help of these advances 5G architecture is going to be more versatile, its reach and stability is also going to get extremely better. The software is also sophisticated enough to understand the users’ and devices’ network functionality.

To continue to give a seamless experience while using 5G, The 5G networks use machine learning (ML) for a lightning fast response time. These extremely quick response times will make self-driving cars much safer.

The Evolution of 5G

The “G” in 5G represents the generation of the technology. In each generation we have seen massive advancements in technology, functionality and speed. 1G was an analogue voice marked by huge phones which was only capable of making short calls and it was too expensive too. The 2G era saw development of the digital voice and digital cellular networks thanks to technologies like CDMA, TDMA and GSM. The 3G era brought us pocket sized phones with various multimedia functionalities and technologies like EVDO, UMTS and HSPA took the internet speed from kbps to mbps. With 4G came an entirely new ball game with speeds upto 1 gbps in some cases, thanks to technologies like WiMAX and LTE. 

5G is a refined technology that has a more capable air interface than what we have seen thus far. These technologies are going to monumentally improve both the personal and professional lives by improving digitalisation in logistics, agriculture, healthcare and transportation. And thanks to 5G’s ability to use the under tapped Spectrum by 4G, the connectivity will be much greater than it used to be. And isolated rural regions will also be able to access the internet with much better connectivity. 

How is 5G Different From Its Successors?

5G, as it runs on radio frequencies which is also used by smartphones, satellite communication, and Wi-Fi, has the potential to nurture the technologies further ahead. 

5G’s most impressive capacity, in my opinion, is the ability to connect things everywhere with a reliable network and no lags. It's so fast that you will be able to download an HD movie on your phone in a matter of seconds, that is wicked cool. 5G technology when used efficiently has enormous potential. 

4G vs 5G - How better is it?

5G in India

Before we move forward you must know the difference between 5G Non-Standalone (5G NSA) and 5G Standalone (5G SA) infrastructures. 5G NSA is based on 4G LTE infrastructure. Even though it is faster than 4G LTE, it is nowhere near close to the real 5G network or 5G SA when it comes to low-latency and high speed. 

In India, only Jio, with its “True 5G” is offering the 5G SA experience for its consumers. Whereas, Airtel and Vodafone Idea (VI) will be using 5G NSA. You will still experience a massive increase in speed and lower latency in 5G NSA but you still won’t be enjoying the fullest of 5G’s potential. 

The Price of 5G in India

As of now there are no announcements regarding the pricing of 5G plans. But there are indications that suggest the pricing will be in the ballpark of 4G plans. Jio’s vision to provide 5G to every citizen, every home and every businesses across India is suggestive of Jio’s pricing strategy is going to be that of 4G. This will be huge as Jio is the only one among Airtel and VI who are actually giving us the 5G SA network. And with Jio having low price for the “True 5G”, Airtel and VI should be providing 5G plans at the price of 4G. If you want my honest opinion, Airtel and VI have no right to increase the price of their 5G network as their 5G NSA network is based on 4G LTE. 

Take a look at Airtel’s and VI’s popular plans and its prices. This is how much you should expect to pay for their 5G services.

Follow the links to know more about mobile plans from Airtel and VI.

What Will 5G Do for the Indian Economy?

According to a report shared by Nasscom, the introduction of the 5G services in India will see a boost of 2% in the Indian GDP by 2030. 2% may not seem a lot but those 2% alone will amount to $180 billion ( Approximately, Rs. 15000000000000). 

As we have known that 5G is going to help the digitization process a lot. The industrial sector can greatly benefit from the new 5G services through economies of scale. This will require an efficient collaboration between the industries and the telcos, the OEM manufacturers, the Govt and the infrastructure companies. Which will also lead to Job opportunities, helping the Indian economy. 

The new infrastructures will also play a huge role in the job market as this 5G project will require a lot of upgradation, setting up fiber and densification of the network. Government needs to play a huge role in the industrial training of skilled labor with know-how to operate these new machines. Not just industrial training, but academic too as there will be an incessant need for able engineers to take this project forward.

As 5G services have started rolling out, the telcos are expanding or setting up new data centers and the demand for specialized workers have increased. Telecom and 5G related jobs have gone up by 33% from September last year to this year’s. 

India can certainly hope for good things for the Indian economy’s future. 

Is 5G safe? 

*Please DO NOT shoot anyone. 

Jokes apart. No, there is no link between Covid-19 and 5G. You can not get Covid-19 because of 5G. Viruses cannot travel on radio waves or mobile networks. For real, please do not believe every made up theory you hear on social media. There is no link between any major health issues related to 5G. This has been confirmed by WHO and many studies.

Relax, you will neither get Covid-19 and nor cancer from 5G. It's all misinformation being spread by the conspiracy theorists. 

Which Other Countries Have Adopted 5G?

What Does Future Have in Store: 6G

If you are wondering if I made a typo or anything, then NO. You are reading it correctly. 6G is already under work and it sounds promising. I know, we have just got 5G in India and the talks for 6G are already happening. But you shouldn’t be worried about it, as the expected availability of 6G tech is scheduled for early 2030s. We got time. But this is the time where we must build upon the available 5G technology for a better future with 6G in mind. What intrigues me the most about the 6G vision is the concept of ”cyber-physical continuum”.

How does a world where the physical and the world have merged sound to you? Personally, I am stoked and I am looking forward to living in a world where the cyber-physical boundary is becoming a thing of the past. This concept of 6G will exactly be like the metaverse as we understand it right now but with added benefits. With 6G It will be possible to project digital items onto physically represented digital objects, allowing them to exist as integrated reality and therefore enhance the real environment. 6G will enable unimpeded movement in the cyber-physical continuum, between the linked physical world of sensations, actions, and experiences and its programmable digital representation. If you ask me, long-distance relationships will get much more interesting. LOL!!

6G is still in a rather conceptual form as of now and the development of 6G will hinge greatly upon what 5G helps us accomplish in terms of technological innovations. What we learn from the 5G network's interaction with its users is going to shape the future of 6G technology. 

6G’s roadmap

Our Verdict

 Overall, the prospects of 5G are absolutely amazing. Some of the benefits will be seen in the long run, cases like robotics, smart homes and IoTs. But when it comes to speed and low latency, we will be able to see the difference instantaneously. With 5G phones already available in the market, most of us already have a 5G mobile.

The previous 4G technology’s max speed clocked at 100 mbps, and theoretically 5G can reach speeds up to 20 gbps. During the initial 5G trials in India, earlier this year, VI managed to reach a download speed of almost 6 gbps, which is the fastest among its competitors. A whole HD movie, downloaded in 1-2 seconds, no buffering, better voice and video call quality, no dropped calls. The ability to connect to and interact with smart devices will be lightning fast. 

A 5G enabled India has a lot more potential than it already had to dominate the global market and become a technological giant. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, India will double its GDP from $3.4 trillion to $8.5 trillion in the coming 10 years and 5G is going to play a huge role in it. 

FAQs

When will 5g launch in India?

The launch of 5G was announced by the Prime Minister of India on 1st October. One-third of the Indian population will have access to the 5G network by the end of 2022. And network operators are aiming for a pan India presence by the end of 2023.

What is 5G?

5G is the fifth generation of mobile technology, a successor of 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G networks. The 5G network has the potential to connect every person and device. The 5G network can also reach isolated rural areas.  

How fast is 5G compared to 4G?

Theoretically, 5G can reach speeds of up to 30 gbps, whereas 4G peaked at 1 gbps. In trials done in India Vodafone Idea (VI) peaked at almost 6 gbps, which is the highest among the competitors.  

Which iPhone supports 5G?

All the iPhone 12 models and above can work on 5G networks. Apple claims that the phones can deliver speeds of up to 4 gbps.