By Anirudh Regidi / 19 Oct 2016 , 08:43
The Qualcomm 4G/5G summit held in Hong Kong covered a lot of ground on mobile networks and the technology that enables them. By far the most important question the summit answered however, was: “What is 5G?”
To the average consumer and the layman, each generation of mobile network only means speed. 1G was analogue communication, 2G was GPRS and EDGE, 3G was 3Mbps speeds and 4G/LTE meant 20-60Mbps speeds.
To the engineers at Qualcomm, however, 5G is not just about speed. Yes, 5G promises ludicrous speeds that directly compete with wired “broadband” services, but 5G also means a vastly more efficient network and a more cohesive one.
We spoke to Peter Carson, Senior Director, marketing, Qualcomm, and Serge Willenegger, Senior Vice President, Qualcomm, who took the trouble to explain 5G to us.
What follows is a summation of the conversation we had with the two executives.
So what is 5G?
To put it simply, the use cases for 4G networks has expanded well beyond the initial scope of the standard. 5G is what you get when you reset the standard/design to cope with the increase in scope.
4G networks don’t just support mobile devices anymore. IoT (Internet of Things) devices are everywhere and the number of them is only going to increase. We’re seeing 4G modems in smart watches, in CCTVs and even in doorbells.
The complexity of 4G.
The problem is that 4G was never designed to support such a varied set of devices and as a result, the 4G ecosystem is fragmented and also congested.
5G, as happened when the transition to 4G happened, will consolidate all these standards under one roof and accommodate for
