On the Characteristics of 5G networks
The recent pandemic and world-wide mass lockdowns have led to ever-lasting changes in our everyday life. Chief among those is, arguably, the accelerating move toward online solutions. Conventional avenues of communications and dialogues, such as in-office meetings, or in-class lectures, are increasingly being replaced by their virtual counterparts (e.g., Zoom calls). Such a change poses a significant reliance on Internet connections. Indeed, network connection has now become a true necessity.
Poor connectivity in certain locations has been believed to have negative implications on not only business productivity, but also worsening socio-economic discrepancy. Consequently, being able to offer near-ubiquitous internet coverage has a tremendous impact on improving economic development and solving inequality issues. Indeed, a great number of both state-backed and non-government organizations have called for provisioning greater internet coverage and consistent connectivity worldwide.
5G networks are the latest innovations in the field of communication. They bring great promises, and attract an immense level of attention. These advances will enable a wide range of applications, including but not limited to Autonomous Vehicle and other IoT devices, TeleMedicine, Virtual and/or Augmented Reality. Even more, these technologies are classified as national security primitives by some governments. Such classification speaks loudly about the importance of 5G.
Let us now provide a brief technical overview of 5G. It is not necessarily a single technology. Rather, it is more proper to look at it as a cohort of technological advances that integrate previous generations cellular mobile systems, whilst at the same time taking full advantage of fixed networks for wireless access and backhaul. With 5G technology, all computing and communication resources, such as spectrum, infrastructure or high-performance computing platforms, can be made available as a service.
A key characteristic of the 5G evolution is Network Densification, especially with the popularity and ubiquity of high frequency yet poor propagation bands. A key challenge lies in how one could desify networking without increasing inter-cell interference. Papers and patents filed for 5G innovations suggest that these networks shall leverage high-frequency millimetre wave (mmW) spectrum. While mmW signals suffer from heavy pathloss in comparison with microwave signals, it is capable of enabling multi-Gbps data rates, albeit with smaller radii of 100-200m. This is thanks to the fact that such frequencies may accommodate much more bandwidth. Therefore, it is assumed that they will primarily be used for local hotspots, which may have implications on deployment costs.
Similar to other fancy innovative technologies, there is a race in implementing and provisioning 5G platforms. Huawei has taken a virtually unchallenged lead in the 5G race, and it is reported to have started the 6G network research. Clearly, these great innovative technologies are commercially available very soon. The question, however, remains, which is whether the mass can actually enjoy these great advances anytime soon. Indeed, a research article entitled "The cost, coverage and rollout implications of 5G infrastructure in Britain" from the University of Cambridge revealed that "(5G) coverage would reach 90% of the (Britain) population by 2027 with 50 Mbps, although the final 10% would see exponentially increasing costs making this proportion unlikely to be served by the market". That is a rather long duration for the mass (of one of the wealthiest countries on earth) to enjoy the sweetness of 5G technology, let alone folks from developing or third world countries.
Because of this 5G technology is at an early stage thus it's not reasonable for mass users and scale up ability for the first time. The payment methods and the gateways have been researching and developing for make it more friendly and popular to the market.
Fortunately, there exist a few initiatives that aim to bring 5G to the mass in a very near future. One example of such initiatives is the FlowCom project. They build atop the well-proven business model of Youtube, App Stores and the likes to channel capital resources from merchants and advertisers to pay for services enjoyed by the end-users. The only bits the end-users, or surfers, need to pay is their time and attention, for instance answering a survey or watching a short video of the merchants and/or advertisers. FlowCom's direction gives a rather positive look at how the mass can have their first-hand experience of 5G networks with little financial cost. It is interesting to see how they can pioneer this very niche market, and to what extent their model can benefit the users and developers of 5G technology.
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Topic: INTRODUCING FLOWCOM FINANCE (Read 925 times)