i3 - September/October 2020 - 12

Tech

By Murray Slovick

A T EC H TO WATC H

The 5G Rollout

he excitement surrounding 5G is justified given its
advanced capabilities, high speed, increased bandwidth and low latency that will inspire development
of everything from massive numbers of IoT devices to smartphones to more complex solutions such as AR/VR and mixed
reality that require significant computing capabilities on the
edge of the network.
While it may not seem like 5G is deploying rapidly, 5G devices have already outpaced the launching of LTE products
during the 4G rollout. However, the
complexity of 5G and the availability of
spectrum (or lack thereof ) are key factors limiting the speed of 5G rollouts.

U.S. Carriers and 5G

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

i3_0920_12_Tech_ATechToWatch.indd 12

Safety Concerns

Qualcomm
President Cristiano
Amon predicts
there will be 200
million 5G
subscribers by the
end of 2020, and
2.8 billion 5G
connections by
2025.
system in 35 cities. AT&T says it will be
nationwide with 5G service later this
summer. T-Mobile has a large network
of low-band 5G across the country and
plans to reach a total of 30 cities by
yearend with its higher speed 28GHz
mmWave coverage.

Low-band and mid-band 5G are on
radio frequencies that have been used
safely by UHF TV for decades. Studies
of mmWave show that it doesn't penetrate human skin well. Indeed, at commercial 5G levels research shows there's
no perceptible effect on people. In fact,
the International Commission on NonIonizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
- a body that assesses the health risks
of radio broadcasts - has declared 5G
safe when operated within ICNIRP's
accepted guidelines. Remember that
millimeter wave transmissions can be
blocked by walls, glass, thick foliage and
even clothing.
When can we expect 5G? Qualcomm
President Cristiano Amon predicts there
will be 200 million 5G subscribers by the
end of 2020, and 2.8 billion 5G connections (phones and other connected
devices) by 2025.

Andrey Suslov/Alamy

Companies are using different parts of the
spectrum to transmit 5G data, which is
divided into three deployments: highband (millimeter waves), mid-band, and
low-band - all of which perform differently. For example, low-band 5G operates
in frequencies below 2GHz. These signals
go great distances, but the channels aren't
very wide. Low-band is relatively slow
(for 5G). Mid-band 5G operates in the
2-10GHz range. With decent range from
the towers of about half a mile, these networks carry the most 5G traffic. Highband 5G, or millimeter-wave (mmWave)
uses airwaves in the 20-100GHz range.
They're short range with about 800-foot
distances from towers.
Verizon has fast, high-band 5G in
parts of 35 cities. Verizon's issue is citywide coverage; its mmWave deployment
relies on 28GHz spectrum, and one of
the challenges with using high-band
spectrum is that it does not cover a large
area. Verizon's system covers only about
15 million people across those cities, a
small fraction of the U.S. population.
Verizon is expanding throughout 2020.
AT&T has a low-band system, not the
sports-car-quick version of 5G, covering
a swath of about 160 million people, and
a faster millimeter-wave high-band

T-Mobile 5G's expansion also includes
sub-600MHz frequencies that reach much
farther to provide for suburban and rural
communities but deliver lower speeds.
Sprint opted for the middle (2.5GHz)
band in 10 cities and complements
T-Mobile's high and low bands (the two
companies merged in February).
As for cars, autonomous vehicles will
interact with other cars and the infrastructure using vehicle-to-everything
(V2X) technology that allows connected
vehicles to communicate with the traffic
system around them. To do this, you
need extremely low latencies, or time
delays. The cars need to exchange information almost instantly and 5G offers
sub-one-millisecond latency.
The biggest change 5G may bring is in
virtual and augmented reality. As phones
transform into devices meant to be used
with VR headsets, the very low latency
and high speeds of 5G will deliver an
augmented world with additional information coming from the internet. The
small cell aspects of 5G may help with inbuilding coverage, as home routers also
become cell sites.

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

9/1/20 10:25 AM

i3 - September/October 2020

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