The future of learning is now the current reality of school.
"The future of productivity is now the current reality of work. "Now, instead of being our future, it's our present," Vestberg continued. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg speaking at CES 2021. "We knew it was coming, but it was closer than we realized," explained Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, speaking during a keynote session recorded for CES 2021 last January - recorded because of how the pandemic sped up everyone's reliance upon digital connectivity to serve as the world's safety net. That's why telcos are stepping up their 5G branding efforts now, including rolling out preliminary 4G upgrades with 5G monikers and re-introducing the whole idea of 5G to consumers as a fuzzy, cloudy, nebulous entity that encapsulates a sci-fi-like ideal of the future.
With so many technologies under the 5G umbrella - home broadband, office broadband, home television, Internet of Things, in-vehicle communication, as well as mobile phone - there's no guarantee that, when it comes time, any consumer will choose the same provider for each one unless that consumer is willing to sign a contract beforehand. If everything works, 5G would be the optimum solution to the classic "last mile" problem: delivering complete digital connectivity from the tip of the carrier network to the customer, without having to drill another hole through the wall. Once all of 5G's components are fully deployed and operational, you will not need any kind of wire or cable to deliver communications or even entertainment service to your mobile device, to any of your fixed devices (HDTV, security system, smart appliances), or your automobile. The biggest promise of 5G for consumers is this: Media transfer and data transaction speeds comparable to wired Ethernet networks across the country, and at boosted speeds in areas where the topology and service infrastructure support the necessary technology. If you use a 4G cellular phone today, it may be operating on a hybrid 4G/5G network at 4G frequencies. Those services are not available everywhere yet, especially in North America, but the platform is being put in place now. 5G's principal purpose is to enable telecommunications service providers ("telcos") the ability to offer a wider variety of higher-bandwidth services, on newly allocated spectrum. 5G was designed to co-exist with previous generations of wireless communications equipment, particularly 4G LTE. The first stage of the 5G Wireless platform is here now, for users of 5G devices in many metropolitan areas. Most importantly, some services with the "5G" moniker are live now, or at least available in some early form, and consumers are searching for that much-promised value.Īlso: 5G reinvented: The longer, rougher road toward ubiquity Big promises collide with bigger realities Several years into the 5G transition already, there remain open questions and unresolved issues. Both service classes are being pitched not so much as eventualities as inevitabilities. To enterprises, 5G represents an alternative route to cloud data centers and global business services. To consumers, 5G is being marketed as a higher quality-of-service option for media-rich, multi-party communications. They're all pitching a service that has yet to go live. For telcos to afford that investment, they have to sell consumers and businesses on the 5G ideal, well before it can effectively be demonstrated, let alone realized. 5G requires a tremendous capital investment, not only in retrofitting existing base stations but also in constructing a denser mesh of smaller, cooler towers, and laying the network of fiber optic cable that connects them. Realizing this promise means selling consumers and businesses on 5G as an ideal, well before 4G LTE (which ironically stood for "Long-Term Evolution") was originally due to expire. Compared with 5G, 4G consumes too many resources, requires too much human oversight, and to borrow a phrase best uttered by Ella Fitzgerald, runs too darn hot.
4G LTE made running their radio access networks (RAN) too expensive. Here is what 5G Wireless technology is actually about: Making it feasible for telecommunications providers to deliver profitable services over their wireless networks.