Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you’re probably aware of the looming 5G network danger. It has been one of the hottest topics recently.
Despite heavy investment in setting up 5G networks around the world by major telecoms companies, there’s no denying that the introduction of this revolutionary technology has been met with its fair share of cautionary tales.
This is despite the fact that 5G networks promise better coverage, faster speeds, and more.
What is the 5G Network?
It’s important to understand 5G in the proper context before we get into 5G network dangers. Basically, 5G is the latest mobile broadband of the next generation. It could either replace or transform the 4G LTE network.
5G promises to bring faster upload and download speeds while decreasing latency, which refers to the amount of time required for devices to connect with wireless networks.
How Does It Work?
At this point, you may not know what 5G network dangers are there. But at least you know what it is. Now it’s time to talk spectrum.
5G Spectrum
5G works quite differently from LTE in that it works on three distinct spectrum bands. This means radically new and improved user experience.
The sub-1GHz spectrum is often referred to as a low-band spectrum. It’s the primary LTE band for U.S. carriers. Although the bandwidth for this spectrum is almost depleted it still offers decent wall penetration and coverage. But data speeds typically peak at 100Mbps.
Mid-band spectrum, on the other hand, offers low latency and faster speeds. But, it’s not able to penetrate through buildings as well as low-band spectrum does and its speed peaks at 1Gbps.
High band spectrum is what makes 5G performance possible but it does come with a few of its own caveats. It’s also known as mmWave and its speeds can go up to 10Gbps and it comes with low latency. The only caveat with the high-band spectrum is that it has poor building penetration and low overall area coverage.
Waveform Poll
In a poll featuring 1,000 adults Waveform found that two out of every three consumers are quite excited about the prospects of what 5G service can bring. About 41.2% of the group expressed moderate excitement. 25% said they weren’t so excited or simply couldn’t be bothered at all.
This is quite the change compared to the results of a previous Waveform study. It appears that an increase in consumer awareness and understanding of 5G hasn’t necessarily increased people’s interest in it.
This might have something to do with emerging data whose findings clash with the marketing hype surrounding 5G networks. Most of the marketing around 5G is based on touting fast download speeds, lower latency, and improved overall performance. But, after a few 5G rollouts the results have been underwhelming, to say the least. Verizon for example, promised consumers radical speed upgrades in a few of the areas that it operates in. While T-Mobile’s 5G offering turned out to be quite similar to the 4G LTE network that consumers are used to.
AT&T has taken a different strategy by introducing three different 5G versions, one of which is 5GE. Most see this as nothing other than a rehashing of their existing 4G LTE network. The company has also tried to introduce low-band 5G with 4G LTE quality speeds, as well as mmWave 5G. This one offers faster speeds but only in a few select areas.
The aforementioned report also shows that both Sprint and T-Mobile consumers appear more responsive to new tech innovation when compared to those of Verizon and AT&T. In fact, the poll shows that 43% of T-Mobile’s consumer base and 38% of Sprint customers are actually looking forward to 5G. However, only about 29.6% of Verizon users and 34.1% of AT&T customers feel the same way.
This difference in results could be based on the marketing methods applied by each company. There’s room to argue that some marketing efforts worked better than others at communicating the potential advantages of 5G. The latest roll-out of high-end 5G enabled smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 should also help to increase interest in 5G albeit slowly. This is because current iPhones don’t have 5G capabilities.
Conclusion
However, 5G is still in its early stages. With the talk of 5G network danger, it’s no wonder that people are so reluctant to get excited about it.
Do you think telecoms companies have done a good job communicating 5G network dangers to consumers? Let us know in the comments section below!
