“India will play an important role in the technological revolution of the world. With 5G, India is leading and setting the global standard in telecom technology. 5G will open many opportunities for the youth. This is a big step toward our vision of a Viksit Bharat.” - Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially announced the launch of 5G services in India at the sixth Indian mobile congress which is the largest telecom, media, and technology forum in Asia on October 1, 2022. The entry of 5G services is going to revolutionize connectivity and give a fresh impetus to digital India.
Businesses and consumers are going to see a transformation, as the way they consume the internet is radically going to change with the launch of 5G services.
Indian telecom operators have vowed to cover the entire country with 5G services by 2023-24.
This blog will focus on the key differences between 4G and 5G services and will focus on how businesses will be impacted by this shift.
1. WHAT ARE THE KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 4G AND 5G?
“We expect 5G to become the worldwide dominating mobile communications standard of the next decade.” – Dr. Christoph Grote, Senior Vice President Electronics, BMW Group
One small thing which explains the difference between them is that we are all aware of ride-sharing applications which have been made possible because of 4G however with 5G services human drivers will no longer be required, and ride-sharing cars will navigate themselves. This is the extent of transformation expected when transitioning from 4G to 5G services. Read about the news here.
Let us discuss the differences in detail
Speed:
The first thing every customer expects when transforming from 4G to 5G is higher speed. Compared to 4G, 5G would be 100 times faster. Read about the news here. An estimate as to what this speed entails, a two-hour film could be downloaded under 10 seconds, which normally takes about seven minutes in 4G. Read about the news here.
Capacity:
I think we all have experienced this once in our life like when we are stuck in a crowded place like a cricket stadium, webpage opening is taking some time. Congestion occurs when too many devices are using the same network in an area leading to slower download speeds and lags. 5G is expected to solve this problem of reduced capacity. Read about the news here.
Latency:
It is important to understand the difference between speed and latency. Speed is the time to download content from the internet and latency is the time in which you send a message and the other person receives it. Latency with 4G is low but with 5G it will make it virtually zero. Read about the news here.
2. ADVANTAGES OF 5G
“5G is going to be an evolution but not a revolution. Smart City and Digital India will ride on 5G.” - Balesh Sharma, former CEO Vodafone-Idea
As seen above 5G can give higher speed, improved capacity, and latency and can bring a monumental change in how we use the internet.
Transformation in Healthcare
Telemedicine will become affordable and accessible with 5G technology. Remote surgeries will become popular. This will be monumental for rural areas where doctors are not available. 5G will no longer need the physical presence of a doctor. Read about the news here.
Smart cities project
5G will serve as an important fuel for the smart city project to come to fruition as it will enable the Internet of things (IoT) which means smart, web-enabled devices having a fixed functionality unlike general-purpose devices like smartphones. For IoT to function, 5G is an enabling technology and as smart cities rely on IoT, 5G is going to be an important tool for the government to achieve its smart city project. Read about news here.
For Example, IoT devices can be used for traffic management and can direct drivers to alternate routes to save time if there is heavy traffic.
The above mentioned are some of the advantages of 5G of the many which are there.
3. CHALLENGES FOR 5G
5G runs on a high band spectrum with its small coverage areas it’s not very reliable. To make 5G operational, telecom operators will have to install tons of cell sites in close proximity to each other. The city will have to be full of those cell sites. This is because signals traveling on high band spectrums will have a tough time getting through hard surfaces. It will be a real challenge to achieve this and it remains to be seen how telecom operators go about it. Read about the news here.
4. IMPACT OF 5G ON BUSINESSES
“While still in its early stages, 5G is already demonstrating the key role it will play in ushering in the next phase of digital transformation. The vital applications made possible by 5G networks – including remote surgery, autonomous vehicles, and delivery drones – will transform healthcare, business operations and more. ” - Rob Johnson, CEO, Vertiv
1. It will make our works more productive and efficient with high-speed internet connectivity
2. It will push remote working and work from home experience to a totally new level
3. As latencies are nearly zero, businesses that require live interaction are likely to benefit more
4. A lot of new and old companies will explore new business opportunities linked to this technology
5. Branding experiences will change as the high level of user engagement enabled by 5G will give it a boost. With technologies like augmented reality, the 360-degree view will be enabled more efficiently due to 5G
6. 5G speeds could be also used to monitor product quality, like making the use of video cameras in factories so that footage could be analyzed to monitor product quality live. Read about the news here.
7. COSTING AND AFFORDABILITY
“India will provide affordable and world-class 5G services to the people.” - Ashwini Vaishnav, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics, and Information Technology, Government of India
Telecom operators will be investing billions of dollars to buy the spectrum and set up the 5G infrastructure so the companies would duly be expecting a return on their investments. The pricing of 5G will determine its accessibility in India among the common masses.
If Cost factors put off customers, it will be a blow to 5G technology in India and the goal of Digital India will remain unfulfilled.
8. 5G AND THE RISKS OF CYBERSECURITY
“More we open up, the more vulnerable we become.”
As the Internet of Things (IoT) list of devices expand, then more and more devices are susceptible to cyber attacks as the number of devices connected to the Internet increases so does the risk. As we move towards 5G, the risks of Cybersecurity increase too.
We will discuss this topic in detail in next week’s blog.
9. CONCLUSION
As India moves towards its path of becoming a 5 trillion-dollar economy, we must move towards 5G so that our businesses could achieve higher business operational capacity so that we as a nation keep on marching towards our goal. Though 5G brings its disadvantages as well however the benefits of using it outweigh the disadvantages.
Gorisco wishes 'All The Very Best’ to the Govt of India and Telecom operators for the success of this great initiative!
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