The complete A to Z of 5G

5G is not just about mobile telephony, but it has the power to run entire Smart Cities. It is the one ring that will rule them all. Once implemented, it will take us to the next stage of Internet connectivity.

A for Automobiles: A big change when it comes to 5G will be the rise of connected vehicles. A connected car can send and receive information continuously and that’s not just about GPS and the Internet, but also communicating with traffic signals and the rest of the Smart City. It will be crucial for driverless cars too.

B for Bandwidth: This is what it is all about. We are always complaining about insufficient bandwidth. When certain 4G networks came, they talked of higher speeds of up to 100Mbps, though that has not practically happened in most cases. Similarly 5G talks of a whopping higher theoretical 10Gbps and maybe even if we achieve a fraction of that, it will be a giant leap.

C for Channel Coding: In Coding Theory, Channel Coding relates to error detection and correction, which is a very important part of the telecom industry. Here also there will be a difference as 4G used turbo codes while 5G will rely on polar codes.

D for Devices: When 2.5G came, you could only think of powering your mobile. While there was some expansion with 4G, when 5G comes, it will be able to cater to every device in your home, even the desktop. In an era of multiple devices, a single 5G connection can take care of them all.

E for Edge: Edge computing brings compute and data together and greatly reduces latency times. In an era of multiple devices and every building and vehicle becoming connected, the Edge is where all the action is. 5G is probably the most important aspect of the Edge going forward.

F for Frequency: 5G uses higher frequencies. But they have a shorter range. That means smaller cells. That means more towers. That means more capital expenditure. That is one of the reasons why implementation is slow.

G for Global Warming: Since 5G will allow many more devices to be connected for a greater amount of time, the Climate Change lobby says that this will lead to a further explosion of devices and hence a greater footprint in energy. With all the buildings and cars being connected 24X7, the energy footprint will indeed increase.

H for Home user: Right now many homes have multiple mobile, Internet and Wi-Fi connections at home. One 5G connection can take care of all the needs and give fast consistent broadband. It would be a boon in the Work From Home era.

I for Internet of Things: We already have more  IoT devices than there are people  in the world. The upper limit by the end of the 2030s is 500 billion IoT devices. They will fully function in an all-pervading steady broadband zone which 5G can provide.

J for Joint partnerships: While India has been behind in the implementation of 5G thanks to factors like the dropping out of 5G leader Huawei, now India, US and Israel are collaborating on 5G tech. That could prove to be a big boost.

K for (square) kilometre: 4G can support upto 100,000 devices per sq km. 5G is 10 times that, meaning it can support a whopping one million devices in one sq km. So it is an upgrade in more ways than one.

L for Leadership: Who takes the global leadership for 5G? No-one really. First it was China and Huawei. But after their global role was in jeopardy, nobody has stepped up to take their place. So China will steam ahead with 5G, but other countries face uncertain journeys.

M for Mobile workforce: The mobile workforce crossed 1 billion some time back and will cross 2 billion soon. For them 5G will come as a boon and give seamless, fast and reliable broadband service.

N for No touch tech: The Covid-19 crisis led to the pandemic and lockdown and the push for no touch technologies. We need more drones, robots and automated processes for all our activities. 5G will be key for that.

O for Orwellian state: Detractors of 5G say that the new technology will give a further fillip to video surveillance and monitoring. There is also something called VSaaS or Video Surveillance as a Service!

P for Public safety: 5G has led to bizarre conspiracy theories that they are bad for health and many towns in the US even banned it. However this really went out of hand after the Covid-19 crisis with many saying that 5G caused the virus in the first place! Dozens of telecom towers were brought down in places like the UK in protest!

Q for Qualcomm, Intel & Jio: Jio received funding way in excess of one lakh crore of Rupees from more than a dozen global players. Then Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that they could implement 5G within a year of getting the contract. And now both Qualcomm and Intel, crucial 5G players, have invested in Jio.

R for Regulation: This is important and only when that is set in place can the 5G roll out take place. TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) came out with a White Paper titled "Enabling 5G in India" early last year. But now we have to go ahead and formalize it all and announce the auctions.

S for Smart: Smart Cities. Smart Homes. Smart Factories. (Industry 4.0). Smart Watches. (Wearable IoTs). Smart Cars. (Connected and driverless). Smart Utilities. They will all be powered by 5G!

T for Technology: While 2.5G and 2.75G piggy banked on 2G, and 3G-4G built on the infrastructure, 5G depends on brand new technology. Right from the towers to the tech embedded on top of it, 5G is a huge tech leap forward.

U for URLLC, eMBB and mMTC: Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications will cater to mission critical apps. Enhanced Mobile Broadband can service highly dense areas. Through Massive Machine-Type Communications, billions of IoT devices can be connected seamlessly. 5G gives you all of that.

V for Virtualization: Network slicing allows multiplexing of virtualized networks on the current physical telecom network infrastructure. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization will allow it.

W for Wanzhou: Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou (CFO) was arrested in Canada at the behest of the US authorities. This represents the absolute nadir for Huawei which was poised to take the global leadership for 5G before it was hit by bans. Her father Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei.

X for Xi Jinping: A few years back the Chineses head of state was flying high and 5G would have cemented him further. China was the leader in 5G and would have been at the forefront of global forefront implementation. But a series of events including the US trade war, security issues, sanctions and bans means that China missed a great chance to be a global leader.

Y for Yuan: According to one report, the Chinese 5G market revenue will be 0.6 trillion Yuan in 2020 and may go up to 6.6 trillion Yuan in 2030. (As of now, 1 US dollar is worth 6.8 Chinese Yuan).

Z for Zero: Despite all the promises, while 5G has been implemented in certain areas, in other areas it is a total zero. 5G research started in the early 2010s. In 2014, Japan formed the 5G Mobile Forum and dozens of countries completed 5G trials in 2017. But in 2020, we are still waiting for 5G(odot).