Looking towards 2019: The Internet in a 5G world
Some concerns remain - such as whether the infrastructure is in place - and these have to be sorted out for this next-gen technology to realise its full potential.
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5G is coming sooner rather than later - there is no doubt about it. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2023, there will be a staggering 9.1 billion mobile subscriptions. And, according to Cisco, by 2020 connected mobile devices will produce 30.6 exabytes per month and annual global mobile data traffic will reach 366.8 exabytes.
In Singapore, rollouts are planned to begin at the end of this year and will start to pick up speed over the next two to three years. Connectivity demands made by innovations such as virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and robotics - which will be huge consumers of data bandwidth - could drive the deployment of 5G.
At the same time, there are concerns about the economics of providing 5G connectivity and driving mass adoption of it, as well as whether the necessary infrastructure is in place. These concerns are valid because the jump from LTE (4G) to 5G is the most significant leap forward for our increasingly interconnected world - certainly much more significant than the jump from 3G to 4G.
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