Obstacles on the road to 5G

In mid-January, Rogers announced that they activated Canada’s first 5G network in downtown Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Ottawa. With each passing day, Canadians are one step closer to faster data speeds, ultra-low latency, and more.

And while we should relish the dawn of a 5G era, technology enthusiasts and policymakers must understand the upcoming challenges as rollouts begin. Technology revolutions are not instantaneous, but the result of accumulated innovation and intelligent decision making.

Wireless information is transmitted through radio waves at different frequencies, each with a different coverage range and different capacity of data (bandwidth) that can be carried. Low frequencies, such as AM radio stations, carry data at low bandwidth, but over a long-range. Higher frequencies, such as 4G LTE networks, carry data at high bandwidth, but over a short-range. 5G technology has the ability to work across a wide range of frequencies and to essentially combine available bandwidth resulting in a potential 100X increase in speeds vs early 4G capability. Spectrum auctions have thus far managed the rights to certain high-speed frequencies and now we are using more wireless devices than ever before, and that means we are running out of vacant frequencies.

That is why a large portion of 5G transmissions are expected to be on what’s called millimetre waves (mmWaves) – super-high frequencies that cover super short distances. But these waves are subject to interference and struggle to go through buildings, plants, and even rain.

To combat this, mobile operators are installing “small cells”: computer monitor sized base stations that can be placed every 250 metres or so on say, a street light or utility pole, in urban areas. These small cells bounce mmWaves, boost the coverage range, and require low-power. We envision a wireless world where cellular is brought to the curb, similar to fibre, phased by order of demand density.

The deployment of 5G is ultimately an infrastructure problem because of small cells. Cities and mobile operators need to spend time and capital on identifying the right locations for small cells, acquiring permits, and leasing/deploying/maintaining sites – amounting to thousands of dollars to install just one small cell. The US FCC estimated that the country needs over 800,000 small cells over the next eight years. Contrast that with the 200,000 cell towers that took decades to build for 2G/3G/4G networks and we can see that small cells require an unprecedented amount of scale and speed to make 5G a reality.

One implication of the increased cell site density is the cutting of the Internet cord. Although my Rogers Internet service in my downtown condo offers higher overall download speeds the latency, also known as the cause and effect of your Internet experience, is less with my Telus wifi/cellular modem and hence gives the impression of being faster. I no longer pay $150 a month for Internet service it is now included in my unlimited Telus cellular data plan.

Increasingly the general public will come to appreciate something eSports enthusiasts have known for quite some time and that is latency is more important to your Internet experience than raw download speeds. A high definition video stream is approximately 2-3 Mbps so the incremental difference between 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps is less relevant to the experience than the reduction of latency from 100 ms in 4G to the expected 5 ms or less in 5G. The mass market will soon learn what eSports players call the ping and eventually, we see customers signing up for premium package services with superior latency.

Updating infrastructure will be accompanied by changes to hardware and the need for 5G-enabled devices. 5G transmissions can also operate on non-mmWaves and mobile device makers such as Samsung, Huawei, and OnePlus, have already started selling phones that operate at these frequencies. But so far, no manufacturer has created a massively available mobile device that supports both mmWaves and non-mmWaves. Industry titan Apple hasn’t been involved in the 5G picture either – likely waiting for network infrastructure to be established first. Expect to spend another $1,500+ for a new phone as soon as widespread 5G networks activate.

Equally as important as 5G-enabled mobile devices are 5G-enabled cloud-connected sensors. As part of the 5G specification mobile engineers have included the ability to support massive densities of sensors, which should prove to be catalytic to the mass adoption of internet-of-things innovations such as autonomous vehicles that instantly react to traffic lights and other cars, remote haptic feedback surgery, and more. But to make these technological advancements prevalent requires a massive renovation of modern infrastructure. Traffic lights need to be retrofitted with new sensors, hospitals will need to restructure their IT systems and so on.

There are also implications for software development in a 5G world. The advent of 5G brings a plethora of improvements to the user experience such as ultra-realistic 3D models in virtual reality simulations, customer support chatbots that respond instantly, and no more “loading…” screens when watching Netflix. In a world where user experience design is becoming an increasingly important product differentiator, developers will need to reinvent applications from the ground-up to compete for our eyes. On top of this, while some users have access to 5G and others do not, developers will need to juggle with multiple application versions to accommodate both audiences.

And then there are privacy concerns which can attack from multiple angles. Take infrastructure: who do we trust to build our 5G networks? The Canadian government is still contemplating on whether or not Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunication manufacturer who has been accused of Chinese state support, should be allowed to participate in building our next-gen network. Huawei is the leader in small cell and associated technologies and has outspent and out-innovated competitors such as Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia. Greeting Huawei with open arms can give Canada a lead against western world peers, but we expose ourselves to national security concerns.

Even if we dash forward with an alternative supplier, what about the exposure of individual data to corporations? 5G enables pinpoint location tracking which can be beneficial for robotics and gaming. But mobile networks could sell data to advertisers so that they can target extremely relevant ads based on our location (and other data points if we’re wearing devices such as smartwatches). The line on what becomes too personal will be vocalized through customer advocacy and enforced by regulatory bodies, as we’ve seen with the European Union and GDPR.

All privacy concerns are intertwined with cybersecurity. An increase in technological complexity leads to an increased threat of attacks as bad actors can explore more potential security flaws.

Lastly, many are skeptics of 5G because of supposed health risks. These comments are daft as there is no conclusive evidence of any harm from 5G or any other existing network. Our wireless networks are classified as non-ionizing radiation – too weak to break chemical bonds – and are in the same category as visible light, radio, power lines, and Wi-Fi. Ionizing radiation – strong enough to break chemical bonds – such as x-rays and gamma rays, are far beyond 5G transmissions. The only remote concern related to health risks and 5G will be convincing consumers that the technology is safe to adopt.

All groundbreaking technologies come forward with challenges and predicaments. But 5G is the biggest thing in mobile since the App Store and can considerably improve our lives in nearly every vertical. We must take bold, but calculated leaps over hurdles for the benefits of 5G to materialize.