Turn to 5G producing vast potential – Miami Today
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You’ve injured yourself. You’re in an ambulance headed for the hospital. But triage doesn’t have to wait until you get to the emergency room. Both the ambulance and the hospital are on a 5G network. The doctor can see and talk to you and the ambulance crew. He can monitor your vitals and make life-saving decisions long before you’re wheeled into ER.
A 5G network is coming to Miami-Dade County. At a recent county commission meeting, multiple residents stood at the lectern and voiced excitement about what 5G has to offer. But they also expressed frustration about all the poles going up. “It’s 15 feet from my children’s bedroom,” one resident told commissioners.
The unavoidable issue is physics, explains Iain Gillott, president of Austin, TX-based iGR, a 5G research and analytic company.
Remember 2G? George H.W. Bush was president, Rosanne was the top sitcom on TV. The New York Giants won Superbowl XXV, defeating the Buffalo Bills by one point, 20-19, the only one-point margin of any Superbowl. Bills placekicker Scott Norwood’s last-second field goal attempt failed, costing Buffalo the victory.
2G, which stands for second-generation technology, Mr. Gillott explains, operated in the 850-1900-megahertz (MHz) range. A decade later, 3G was launched, operating in the 900-2100 MHz range.
Each incarnation offers new features and faster speeds. 2G gave us digital voice and basic data services. 3G enabled mobile data, improved voice quality and internet connectivity. 4G, beginning in 2009 and operating in bands up to 2600 MHz, gave us faster download and upload speeds and improved signal quality.
5G, created in 2019, is a horse of a different color and more than a gallop forward in cellular technology. Mr. Gillott told Miami Today. 5G, in mid- to high-band frequencies, moves data at speeds up to 40 gigahertz (Ghz) per second. That “G” is what makes all the difference.
Megahertz is a unit of frequency equal to 1 million cycles per second. Gigahertz is a unit of frequency equal to 1 billion cycles per second.
The problem, if you checked the glass-is-half-empty box, is that the faster the speed, the shorter distance the signal travels. The shorter the distance, the more “small cells” are necessary to pass the signal along. “Small cells” is the technical name for those “thingamajigs” they’re putting on all those newly implanted poles throughout the county.
3G was phased out years ago, Mr. Gillott said. “5G,” he added, “is like 4G on steroids.”
“Think of it as 4G started working out at the gym and went on a diet,” the technology company president explains. “As the frequency increases, the signal doesn’t go as far.” Gigahertz signals travel a tenth as far as megahertz signals. Do the math. That’s a lot of poles. Is it worth it?
5G speeds allow uploading and downloading large files, like TV shows and movies, in a matter of seconds, according to a report on the website digitaltrends.com. 5G will give a “significant boost” to mobile broadband, save energy, and expand the internet to rural areas.
The ultra-reliable, low-latency 5G network will allow Jetson-age devices like an autonomous robot that can enter a burning building to look for victims. “Latency,” Mr. Gillott explains, “is the time it takes for the signal to travel through the air and then through the network and get processed and come back.”
Low latency offers countless business, industrial and medical applications. It has applications in artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. And you can download a two-hour movie in 20 seconds at a mid-range 5G frequency.
Two relatively new state laws give cell providers permission to erect poles, basically wherever they want.
The Advanced Wireless Infrastructure Deployment Act of 2017 established a process for providers to place small cells in public rights of way. It also ordered cities and counties to open their rights of way, utility poles and traffic signals to wireless carriers that want to install 5G equipment on them.
Senate bill 1000, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, stops local governments from creating or enforcing regulations on communications services.
Essentially, it limits the control of local governments over where the cell poles may be erected.
Miami-Dade County commissioners wanted the mayor’s office to create some kind of system, including a web page, where residents will be notified of upcoming installations.
Jennie Lopez, senior media manager in the mayor’s office, told Miami Today that the county is developing an informational flyer “to notify communities where 5G applications are being sought,” which should be available later this month. Miami Today has asked the mayor’s office if there is an application system in place. There was no response by press time.
Of course, wireless carriers aren’t stopping at 5G, and the first commercial 6G launches are expected by 2030, according to a report on zdnet.com.
6G is expected to break the terabit barrier; “terabit” as in 1 trillion, as in 100 times faster than 5G.
It’s up in the air, quite literally, whether 6G would require additional poles.
“Right now, there are lots of proposals,” Mr. Gillott told Miami Today, “but no decisions on which spectrum 6G will use. If it uses the same spectrum as 4G and 5G, then the same number of poles would work. If 6G uses a higher band spectrum, then we will need more poles.”
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