It has been heralded as the next big step in networking as 5G is starting to slowly release across many of the bigger cities and towns, whilst it may take a little time before infrastructure is put in place for it to become widespread in smaller towns the spread is inevitable – there’s also the matter of many of our devices also increasing in capacity for the higher speeds that come with 5G, but what does the introduction mean for both mobile and home users?
(Image from theverge.com)
The primary usage will come for mobile users as it steadily starts to replace 4G, and will find its most use in the way we consume content. We spend more time on social media and video streaming sites such as Youtube and Twitch and the faster speeds will allow for a more streamlined viewing experience for most, amd with content creation becoming a bigger focus for more and more of us too the faster upload speeds open up the option for live streaming streaming or remote working to become more available as a few of the limitations are removed. Gaming will also become another big focus as 5G becomes more readily available as platforms such as Google’s Stadia can become more widely used and evolving tech in virtual and augmented reality also have the opportunity to start moving forward as some of the restrictions that came through slower speeds or capacity are solved – there has been a huge surge in new players on mobile games recently too as the pandemic has led to many seeking out alternative forms of entertainment, despite changes to some regulation there is a surge in users turning to Casinos Not on Gamstop as their preferred genre of game.
There are also big benefits coming for home users too – perhaps the most spoken about benefit that 5G brings is the increasing speeds as the theoretical max has suggested to be at 10Gbps for both upload and download – a growing issue with home broadband has been speeds typically have remained quite low, in the UK the average download and upload speed is around 50 Mbps and less than 10 Mbps respectively, and often being tied in to expensive contracts with TV too there are many seeking an alternative. Whether that be from users simply using their mobile data as a hotspot to connect to to benefit from the increasing speeds or the change forces ISP’s to update their own infrastructure to match what is being offered by mobile competition, there’s no doubt going to be some change here too. Whether you’re a primary mobile user or a home user looking for an alternative it’s certainly an exciting time in networking and we may see some very quick changes to many of our favourite apps or programs or hardware to make the most use – until then it is unfortunately for many just a long waiting game, as the process for the change will take some time until it’s available at it’s most widespread and fastest capacity.