5G and the ‘Internet of Things’

5G and the ‘Internet of Things’ sounds like a movie title, however it will be a reality sooner than we think. The ‘Internet of Things’ is about everyday devices like fridges, TVs, washing machines and kettles all connecting to the internet to make our lives more connected. We are not quite ready for the radical worlds of Terminator or Wall-E yet – so no need to panic at this moment.

5G and the Internet of Things

Image taken from Disney’s Wall-E film

What ‘Internet of Things’ or IoT really means, is that our lives can become more efficient. For example, better traffic management systems, bin collections and car parking systems. If everything is connected to everything else, we can use the data to create something more autonomous. At this point, I can hear some of you scream about your privacy and your “rights” as a human being – this is not an argument for today on here.

Back to the title of this article. Faster connectivity is required for IoT to work as we have more devices connecting, we therefore need more bandwidth and anything less than 4G would be a headache. 5G is expected to launch in 2020 and efforts to make this happen must be ramped up in 2016 as some elements of 5G are still being finalised.

451 Research have released information from a study about the next generation of networks and have gone on to say, “IT players need to think about IoT now and 5G soon,” said Ken Rehbehn, principal analyst, mobile telecom, at 451 Research. “Whether it is real-time analytics, datacentre design, location-based Web services, or social networks and digital currencies, 5G will affect demand patterns as early as 2018.”

What does this mean to us? The next generation of networks and the integration between devices could change how mobile networks think. The new infrastructure and connectivity could be the key to huge technological advances as well as the obvious, a SIM card in EVERY SINGLE device! How would a contract work? Pay as you go would be impossible to manage?

Another issue that needs to be resolved; can the new networks achieve low latency, power use and scalability? Without these key areas of focus, the networks would become potentially unusable.

Ericsson has predicted there will be 150 million 5G subscriptions by 2021, imagine that!

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