5G was once a pipedream that has now turn into reality. Globally, 5G continues to make significant progress and has profound impact on the mobile industry and its customers. In the era of connectivity, 5G is expected to make waves as connectivity becomes flexible and fluid. According to GSMA, 5G networks will cover one-third of the world population by 2025. This growth is also due to the increasing use of Internet of Things (IoT) and its potential in both commercial and industrial space.
In this blog, we will focus on the early adopters of 5G, use cases, and the future of 5G.
Global 5G adoption
Reportedly, 5G will be ten times faste than 4G LTE networks. The switch to 5G could become the biggest growth driver for the smartphone industry in coming years. According to GSMA estimates, Greater China has 29% of 5G mobile utilizing the new standard in 2021, thus emerging as the leader in this new technology. The country has more than 10,000 5G-based applications developed for education, healthcare, and transportation. North Amerca and Europe are following the drive with 13% and 4% respectively. However, it is predicted that North America will surpass China by 2025 with 63% 5G adoption, while the rest of the world will continue their dependecy on 4G.
Currently, Singapore is using AI to create an eco-smart city with smart energy management. Similarly, Austria’s WienBot is constantly learning to understand the public’s most frequently-asked questions. San Diego, California has developed an app that is used to connect, coordinate, manage various citizen service requests. To help monitor water usage in Fukoka, Japan, the country is using sensor data to build models. In fact, the country has more than 45 million 5G subscriptions in March 2022.
Saudi Arabia has Saudi Telcom which now has the most extensive 5G coverage and expects to reach 45 million new 5G supported IoT devices by 2030. Other countries that are closely adapting 5G include Spain, Italy, Australia, Canada, UK, South Korea, and Finland.
Interesting 5G projects
Industry 4.0 revolutionzed the use of technology across industries. Indusitres including communication services, real estate, business services, manufacturing, finance, healthcare, automotive are expected to benefit the most from the increasing 5G users. It is also said that the Internet of Things has witnessed rampant increase since the introduction of 5G. Together, 5G and IoT are used in several interesting projects around the world for their speed, power efficiency, device connectivity, network slicing, low latency, and expanded bandwidth.
Here are five interesting areas where 5G is used.
1. Smart cars
According to Statista, connected cars is expected to become the largest segment with 39% market share in the global 5G Internet of Things (IoT) endpoint market by 2023. This could be due to the fundamental offerings of the 5G network that can be used for automotive safety, position sharing, autonomous driving and more. As the production of eclectic cars costs less than internatal combustion vehicles, it is also predicted that the overall 5G IoT endpoint installed base will reach 49 million in 2023 worldwide.
2. Video surveillance
Today, physical security is an important sector. As 5G gains popularity, industry players have started to explore newer ways of security systems thanks to 5G’s speed and latency. Although most users are comfortable with wireless bandwidth, the predicted latency rate between 1-4 milliseconds will become a differentiator to adopting 5G. To that end, Gartner predicts 5G IoT endpoint installed base will approach 49 million units by 2023.
3. Healthcare
In the post pandemic world, there is a lot of scope for telehealth. With 5G technology, these services becomes better as it enables patients to communicate easily without any delays or network blackouts. Critical healthcare services can leverage the growth of 5G to improve quality of service and ensure patients have immersive experience. Similarly, having high-speed network also helps while sharing large medical imageries, thus improving access and quality of care.
4. Smart city
With the advent of 5G, there is a brighter chance for smart cities to come into effect. 5G offers the necessary parameters for smart cities to connect, including the use of sensors, analytics data, and more. Statista reports that the global IoT in smart cities is expected to grow by 18.8%. 5G is considered the driving for smart cities as it can connect everythinfr from machines, objects to devices better than the existing 4G technology. Higher performance, end-to-end security, and better energy efficiency are some of the main reasons for 5G’s role in the evolution of smart cities.
5. Smart grid automation
Modernized power grid uses communication technology to distribute electricity with the intent to save energy, improve reliability, and reduce expenditure. Smart grid automation uses modern day technology to replace the need for manual monitoring. Evidently, 5G allows smart grids to become a reality. Low cost maintenance, network slicing, and automation have been the driving forces among utility operators to switch to smart grid automation. With smart grids, utility operators will have millisecond-level precise load control, intelligence distributed feeder automation, distributed power suppliers, and information from low voltage distribution systems.
Future of 5G network
Despite the current slow adoption rate, 5G has a positive road ahead. It is expected to increase connectivity, improve communication, enhance various virtual and augmented reality experiences, and drive business productivity. One of the most important reasons for 5G’s growth is low latency. Although most people and businesses are content with the speed of 4G LTE or lower, things will soon start to change when countries across the world make the investment to make 5G mainstream.
