What is 5G Network?

5G is an acronym for 5th Generation wireless cellular communication network standard, first launched in South Korea in April 2019. To understand the 5G network standard clearly, let’s first look at the revolution of communication network standards in a series of the Gs from 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G. What we should not forget is that every generation comes with improvements compared to its predecessor, including improvements in data security, data rates, and frequency bands. According to ITU (International Telecommunications Union – a United Nations agency responsible for issues pertaining to information and communication technologies), there are set standards for the IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) sector that a communication network standard has to meet in order to qualify to be named the next generation. These mainly include better information security, reliability, affordability, connection speed (bandwidth/data rate), and compatibility, among others.

1G was the first generation of wireless cellular technology (mobile telecommunications)network introduced in the 1980s in Japan. It was an analog radio signal technology designed to facilitate voice communications over cell towers to other handsets and telephone systems with a maximum transmission speed of 2.4kbps, using a 30KHz frequency.

1G phones generally had poor battery life, and voice quality was low without much security, and they would sometimes experience dropped calls.

2G was the second-generation wireless cellular technology network for mobile communications, launched in Finland in 1991. Unlike 1G networks, 2G networks use digital radio signals. This was also for voice communications and data services in the form of SMSs (text messages) and MMS (Multimedia Messages). 2G used a 1.8 GHz frequency and had a maximum data rate of 64Kbps, meaning that 2G was about 27 times faster than 1G. All messages sent over 2G were digitally encrypted, allowing secure transfer of data in such a way that only the intended receiver could receive and read it. Also, there was a significant reduction in the number of dropped calls and in audio quality.

3G was the third generation of wireless communication standard, with the first commercial launch in Japan in 2001. 3G is the mother of all the interesting wireless technologies that we enjoy today, which came with mobile data. The video downloading, e-mailing, photo sharing, web browsing, and other smartphone technologies that had never existed before. Generally, it was designed to support a wider range of internet applications. 3G used a frequency range between 1.6GHz and 2GHz, which, when combined with the improved audio compression capability during a call, could support a number of simultaneous calls in the same frequency range. 3G had a target of 2Mbps bandwidth set by the IMT, although its HSPA+ standard could handle a maximum data rate of up to 21.6Mbps. Though 3G could support different internet applications, high latency levels and slow speed were still matters of concern, which led to improvements that evolved into 4G networks.

4G was first commercially launched in Finland in late 2009. 4G was a very different technology as compared to 3G, purposely developed to provide high speed, high quality, and high capacity to users while improving security and lowering the cost of voice and data services, multimedia, and internet over IP. Potential and current applications, including amended mobile web access, IP telephony, online gaming, HD video streaming without buffering, video conferencing, 3D television, 4K video downloading and uploading, and cloud computing, all became possible with the 4G network. Latency was also reduced from 300ms on 3G to less than 100ms. At first, with the use of the WiMAX standard, there was a very little difference between 3G and 4G in terms of speed, which, when combined with other physical and geographical challenges, internet users in Uganda started questioning the reality of 4G service claims by the Internet Service Providers. With the introduction of 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution), which was also named the Broadband, users started noticing a difference between 3G and 4G. 4G worked within a range of 2GHz to 8GHz frequency with bandwidth between 2000Mbps and 1Gbps. 4G, however, was characterized by excessive consumption of batteries.

In a nutshell, 1G delivered analogue voice calls via wireless connections, 2G delivered digital voice calls via wireless connections, 3G came with mobile data, 4G ushered in the era of mobile broadband, and now we are looking at 5G.

5G, like those other cellular network generations, was designed to further enhance wireless connectivity, but this time with a great improvement in availability, massive capacity, data speed, and ultra-low latency. 5G is to virtually connect everyone and everything together. Have you heard about IoT (Internet of Things) and M2M (Machine-to-Machine)? Well, think about the automated vehicles like the autonomous cars, robots, drones, wearable computers, traffic lights, microwaves at home, all kinds of tracking systems for humans like babies, animals, and vehicles. Think about the digital and analog machines in medical, agricultural, industrial, meteorological, astronomical areas, e.t.c, all having their embedded sensors connected to the internet in such a way that they can communicate, share information, and take appropriate actions without human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. This calls for a superfast, reliable, and efficient network, and this gave rise to a 5G cellular network standard.

5G has a capacity of 10Gbps data rate, even higher, which is almost the speed of a cable connection, and transmits within a frequency range of 3GHz and 100GHz. This is quite a large frequency spectrum, large enough to accommodate a number of devices communicating at the same time with ultra-low delay or latency. 5G is looked at to be 100 times faster than 4G and to have 1000 times more capacity and deliver fabulous new services, though there are health concerns about its strong radio frequency radiation.