What Applications will 5G have?

For one it will have all that you do now on 4G, internet connection, all the apps, all the things you’re doing now that you feel you can’t live without. 

The new applications will push the network beyond the limitations that we know today and into virtual reality and IoT connections and more streaming video that we could not have before. 

One more thing that is driving it? Vehicle to Vehicle communications. It is the thing that we expect to change the way we live. Vehicles that can communicate with each other to make the chances of accidents lower than ever, in theory anyway. It is also pushing the limits of driverless cars. We are hoping that someday in the next five years that driverless cars are commonplace. Can you imagine that? It would reduce the chance of death on the highways and roads in general. The network will be responsible for all of this, albeit more than 5G but the network reliability, latency, and speed. This falls under the Internet of Things, IOT.

In the enterprise, we will have real-time reporting of KPIs, or stock trades, or horse races that we can get real-time results on, even see the action take place in real time.

Sporting events can offer you the best seat in the house at your home, or at a bar or even at any remote location by showing the game in virtual reality. Think about that, watching the game, be it American Football, Soccer or football, baseball, rugby, cricket, or any Olympic event as if you were in the stadium. The only thing you won’t get is the smell of the arena or someone spilling beer on you. Invite me over, and I can take care of the beer spilling part. 

What about smart cities? Suddenly we pushed cities into the idea that they can see all the city at any time. I know you’re thinking that big brother is watching, but what if big brother was looking at traffic patterns, accidents, traffic delays? They may be able to help or at least report it so that you know to go a different way and in real time. They would also see major potholes in the road and warn is that it is ahead. 

The smart home will go to the next level. When the new networks come online, we should have improved battery life with greater efficiency so that we can take the devices out of the home, away from power, and rely on batteries for months instead of days. We could track pets, bikes, anything that we leave outside for a fraction of the cost it would take to do it now. 

Health services for taking medicine and tracking health conditions will improve, we see it now, it will go to the next lever for real-time reporting anywhere and anytime. 

Drones are always brought up, but the network for drones should be large. With drones, they may have a near field 5G connection that would allow them to control and upload and download data. It is the network that will enable these devices to get their information, but they will need to be autonomous at some point. The network can give them the updates and information they need for the flight path but they need to be able to talk to each other in the air, this is where a small 5G mm-wave network can come in handy.