The telecommunications authority of india , DoT ( Department of telecommunications) ,earlier this week approved the applications of private telecom companies Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea (VI), Reliance Jio and state-run telecom “Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited” (MTNL) to conduct 5G trials in the country for the proposed development of technology generation. The trials are supposed to last for next 6 months which includes the 2-month period for procurement and setting up of the equipment.
INTRODUCTION
Continuous developments in the field of technology have now come up with the almost door ready service, the next generation in the field of tech “5G”, which will entail the consumers with faster speed comparative to the previous (Currently prevailing) Generation technology, also when compared to those delivered via fiber-optic cables. Soon as the 5G technology passes the trial phase and gets the approval for the regular commercial use the proposed consumption can be recorded at the speed of 3GB/ps with rough measures from 700-3000 MB/ps, providing the smooth downloading, faster connectivity and enhancement of other incidental Internet services.
MEANING OF 5G NETWORK
“5G networks are digital cellular networks, for which the service area is divided into small geographical cells. The 5G wireless devices in a cell communicate by radio waves with a local antenna array and low power automated transceivers (transmitter and receiver) in the cell, over frequency channels assigned by the transceiver from a pool of frequencies that are reused in other cells. The local antennas are connected to transmission electronics connected to switching centers in the telephonic network and routers for internet access by high-bandwidth optical fibre or wireless backhaul connections. As in other cell networks, a mobile device moving from one cell to another is automatically handed off, seamlessly to the current cell. 5G can support up to a million devices per square kilometer, while 4G ( prevailing) supports only one tenth of that capacity. The new 5G wireless devices also have 4G LTE capability, as the new networks use 4G for initially establishing the connection with the cell, as well as in locations where 5G access is not available”.
EVOLUTION OF GENERATION ( BRIEF HISTORY)
Since 1980s, the world starting witnessing the future possibilities of high potential within the networking tech sector with high hopes having the first Generation launched only to follow up with massive success:
¹ THE FIRST GENERATION (1G) was launched in the era of 1980s which mainly worked on analog radio signals and supported only voice calls.
² THE SECOND GENERATION (2G) was then launched in the 1990s ,which with a bandwidth of 64 Kbps ,supported both voice and data transmission using digital radio signals.
³ THE THIRD GENERATION (3G) was launched in the early 2000s with the ability to transmit telephone signals including digitised voice, video calls and conferencing at a speed of 1 Mbps to 2 Mbps.
⁴ THE FOURTH AND CURRENTLY PREVAILING GENERATION (4G) was launched back in 2009 with a peak in speed providing 100 Mb/ps to 1 Gb/ps which also enabled the “3D virtual reality”
The FIFTH GENERATION (5G) however Currently is at the trial phase , mainly focuses on four specific areas being : SPEED , LATENCY, ERROR RATE AND RANGE ,further depending upon the three frequency spectrums;
• Low- Band spectrum
• Mid-Band spectrum
• High-Band spectrum
Which also can be considered as three major factor/features of 5G technology having their own uses and limitations according to coverage range and speed penetration strength.
ADVANTAGES
With an upgrade in the any sector, there’s always a positive impact, directly and indirectly. The most important categories of the features of which can be discussed as:
✓ LOWER LATENCY : Which enables faster transmission of larger data streams to travel within the sources.
✓ EASE OF RELIABILITY: Enabling better transmission of data in extreme conditions.
✓ FLEXIBILITY: It can support a wider range of devices, sensors, and wearables being more flexible than Wi-fi
✓ LATEST UPGRADED LTE: With an upgrade in LTE (long-term evolution) 5G technology prospects to serve the latest high frequency spectrum in the broadband networking services.
✓ SPEED AND EFFICIENCY: While the 4G network provides for maximum speed as 1Gb/ps, on the other hand 5G is recorded to provide 20x(times) more than the previous Generation which is approximately 20 Gb/ps.
✓ BETTER ACCESSIBILITY: With healthcare, Education and sectors as banking being highly dependent on online modes, the upgrade can surely play a vital role in fast and efficient accessibility of services.
✓ ECONOMIC IMPACT : “5G is expected to create a cumulative economic impact of USD 1 trillion in India by the year 2035″ according to a report by a government-appointed panel (2018)
WHY ESSENTIAL CALL OF THE HOUR?
The 5G technology however has been a long time goal for the developing countries to be achieved for economic and infrastructural reasons. The recent trial in the country, which is going to last for next 6 months, is supposed to eradicate a major loop of low return investments within the telecom market. The telecom market is observed to be left with only main 3 private telecom companies with the rest facing the situations of surrender to the low returns on investments over the years. The two state-run companies, MTNL and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have however managed to survive but only to make losses and debt ( In the attempt to revive). It has become extremely important for the telecoms to experiment with the latest generation and planting in order to increase their average revenue per user (consumers).
RISKS
There’s no doubt ,with the rapid increase in technology and range of surface of services for the development, the risks factor also are developing in the parallel. From targetting the health of individuals to virtual privacy concerns, there are alot of disadvantages of the tech upgrading. Some of which being:
✓ SECURITY CONCERNS: A report published by the European commission and European commission for cybersecurity details the security issues surrounding 5G. The report warns against using a single supplier for a carrier’s 5G infrastructure.
✓ COST HIKE: The management and maintenance of the 5G services while fulfilling the need of high connectivity networking are supposed to hike the cost for the consumers initially. Whereas, several cellular operators ensured to soon find the alternative option to minimise the costs, but until then the customer will have to bear for the services ,for the maintenance to be managed and great revenue to be generated for the providers.
✓ LIMITED BENEFICIARIES: With 5G targetting urban areas as a top most priority, for years to come no possibility of the facilities to be made available to rural areas seems to be a success. With only a handful of population ,not residing in any remote/distant area, to benefit out of the revolution.
✓ DRAINING BATTERIES: With high power 5G ,some of the reports mentioned how the usage can entirely damage the cellphone batteries, trying to connect with higher frequencies.
✓ POLLUTION: The battery draining and damaging of cellphones and excessive production of new 5G cellphones creates the concern for Environment as well. The wastage, air/noise/water pollution can highly damage the environment and nature in the long run, while adapting entirely new tech schemes.
✓ HEALTH : With higher frequencies around the residing areas, with approach of range in connectivity for high speed, the health of living beings is definitely going to be affected, Resulting several diseases and ailments caused by the radio signals.
✓ PRIVACY CONCERNS: With implantation of new generation technology, loopholes are going to be created, unknown of the safeguards. Recently, India disallowed the Chinese telecom investors to anyway associate with the project 2021-5G to ignore possible risks of data loss and privacy infringements.
CONCLUSION
From being a chance for the revival of telecoms recieving drawbacks to providing a high speed connectivity to the Consumers for the country to be levelled up in development in the field of technology, the upgrade of generation surely has it’s own impacts, positive and negative, the trial for sure can provide a set up of understanding the situation the future of technology has stored in. There will be loopholes, and solutions. The only measure to be considered here is if the risk factor is higher or the advantage, which is now only for the future of technology to Decide.
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