Commercial 5G rollout has begun in USA and South Korea

  • The first commercial rollout of the 5G data network has begun in the US and South Korea, with limited commercial services in a few cities so far.

    The 5G network has been testing around the world for some time, and the results have been promising. Where 4G mobile internet offered bandwidth of up to 20Mbps and response times of around 50ms, 5G promises an incredible speed limit of up to 10,000Mbps and could theoretically get response times of as low as 1ms.

    Now the first commercial rollouts have begun in a controlled manner, with US mobile carrier Verizon in Chicago and Minneapolis and South Korea's top three providers launching serivices this week. 5G is poised to be revolutonary not just for end users streaming 4k video on their mobile devices but also represents a major leap forward for IoT devices, the ongoing Industry 4.0 revolution, and the rapid advancement of smart cities initiatives.

    The extremely low latency and high bandwidth will allow rapid collation of realtime data from IoT sensors or autonomous drones that can be used in everything from environmental monitoring and agriculture to traffic management. University College Dublin has even started Ireland's first dedicated 5G & IoT accelerator programme to explore new and innovative applications for the technology.

    Back in February, BT announced that Belfast will be among the first cities to get 5G coverage as part of a rollout that will involve 16 cities in the UK, though we don't have a date for the rollout yet. Consumer rollout will take place through the EE mobile network for users with 5G-compatible devices such as the Huawei Mate X, which recently became the first 5G device to attain EU CE safety certification.

    Source: BBC News

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    Brendan is a Sync NI writer with a special interest in the gaming sector, programming, emerging technology, and physics. To connect with Brendan, feel free to send him an email or follow him on Twitter.

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