As we prepare to enjoy loading large volumes of data, with the luxury of the 5G network, on the international scene, concerns have risen, pointing fingers at the companies trying to unrealistically develop the local areas and their capacity to take on 5G.
Preliminary reports indicated that these companies are looking for ways to extend their service to the local areas. The 5G trend will come as one of the most-awaited things, however, before we move to the 5G network, how many devices will be able to accommodate the large amounts of data that will be enabled by 5G! The world’s leading mobile phone mast company, Ofcom intends to have the high capacity spectrum in the 3.4 MHz band.
Whereas the 5G network needs the 3.4 MHz band to enable it carry heavy amounts of data, it is quite unfortunate that this spectrum that is on auction is not compatible with most of the current devices.
The reality of moving to 5G is not yet here, it is rather still in research, reports and dreams that countries intend to water up at least until next year. Bigger dreams of getting up to even 7G and perhaps 8G are still pointless until we can enjoy a 5G fast wireless internet. The world has been looking at South Korea, which is per se the country with the highest internet speed as observed, we should see the air in South Korea pioneering this 5G network, at least by next year stories should come up in this line.
Questions on whether the 5G is ready have been going around the tech spaces, and it is good news that different network providers around the globe expect to put out their first smartphones running 5G very soon. Everywhere, ears are waiting for good news on the 5G network as it will provide very fast download speeds over the many mobile networks we subscribe to. Hopes are high, Uganda cannot wait as 2018 has been a year of test, and we would like to assume that the tests will yield beautiful results. 2019 should make students’ research work faster with the arrival of 5G. Companies should keep up with the dynamics in their online market spaces and potential customers all over the world. Digital marketers must be happy to adopt quite earlier than other ordinary Ugandans who get online to send Facebook messages and look through Kardashian tweets. I guess 5G will build the spirits of Digital developers and have work moving much faster than rumours passed around by some social media influencers that have discovered a life in propagandising issues just to build themselves bent careers than go down the tubes faster than the 5G internet speed.
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And how will 5G operate?
Looking up at the power of the frequency band that the wireless spectrum on which 5G is going to operate, it is a realistically high frequency that will go between 30 GHz and 300 GHz, running through the millimetre wave spectrum, and that is where the 5G will operate from.
Before we jump to 5G however, all phones that our network operators intend to introduce to 5G have to be operating at least in 4G. In Uganda today, not many people were able to welcome the 4G experience even when it was so beautifully advertised and encouraged. Free SIM cards that run 4G were introduced but people have since had issues switching to 4G because of the amount of data it sweeps from their pockets, and now that there is a tax on internet use in Uganda, we cannot possibly rush to believe in the miracles that 5G will come with. Whereas the internet speed might be going faster, it is also true that Ugandans are willing to wait for a song and video to download in the night for 2 hours while on the 2G network. Welcome to Uganda!
And what is needed for 5G to exist in our air space?
First, as usual, funding is necessary. 5G trials cannot be done without the monies, networks in our country will need backing to expand into the 5G reality. Also, this funding should go out to the local areas, as investments in fibre networks need to be made there. With this, education on the goal being shot at will play its role much easier as business and public sector demands will be met. Generally, the investment in the fibre optics broadband will have to be heavy for everything to work out as planned.
And what should we expect from this 5G?
If we thought that our 4G smartphones are enabling the fastest download speeds, 5G will attempt to whack that thought out of our heads, I’m positive it will succeed. 5G should prove the ability of our smartphones having an even faster download speed than 4G has offered us in its service so far. There is a strange energy about this 5G; that its capacity will go as far as carrying much more data at higher speeds than 4G has been doing. As such, consumers will be blessed with greater coverage. Till then, we’ll continue to dream about the 5G experience.