5G Mobile Providers In A Race

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Mobile device modems are ready to receive data at a rate that wireless providers are unable to provide. What will 5G look like when it comes to town?

MWC offers a glimpse of 5G

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is not only Europe’s largest consumer electronics show, but a glimpse into the future. The estimated 95,000 in attendance this week affords tech companies the opportunity to show off a bit and warn consumers about how unnecessary humans will be in a few decades’ time.

Make no mistake, the Internet of Things (IOT) will see that we’re not around any longer. However, until then, our phones will simply give us that which we don’t need considerably faster. Do you need a text message from your refrigerator? You’re going to get one regardless of your answer.

2020 will see nearly 40 billion IOT devices in operation but who will win the 5G fight?

“You’ll see demonstrations from vendors and from the handset guys to show the kind of speeds you can get over 5G networks,” Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer of GSMA, the organizers of MWC told CNBC.

Nokia chimes in

Nokia CEO, yes Nokia still exists, Rajeev Suri believes that 5G wireless is on the horizon.

Unlike most, Suri believes that 5G won’t wait until 2020 but rather it will be defined “in real terms” this year.

“2020 is probably when we’ll see global volume deployments, but we’ll probably start to see a lot of action, in an evolutionary way, ahead of 2020—2017, 2018, 2019,” he said.

“I’ve seen almost none of the organizational angst and infighting that have characterized earlier deals,” Suri said while referring to the normal infighting that exists between former and present handset manufacturers.

London to take the lead

While Google’s Project Skybender fancies giving you 5G internet from solar-powered drones, don’t wait on that notion. While a lovely idea, it’s more likely that the UK will be providing you with mindbogglingly fast Internet on your tablet or smartphone.

I say London but it’s Surrey. While Chelsea may train there they are London.

At the University of Surrey, researchers are working on increasing the speed of the mobile web by one-hundred fold…and they are not far away.

To be finished in early 2018, Rahmim Tafazolli, director of the University of Surrey’s research center that oversees the 5G project, is all sorts of excited.

“A lot of the technology already works in a laboratory environment,” he explains when asked about his project and the necessary antennae that number well over 70. “Now, we have to prove it works in real life.”

Tafazolli is not alone.

“Everyone is rushing to demonstrate they are a leading player for 5G,” said Bengt Nordstrom, co-founder of Northstream, Stockholm, Sweden-based consulting company.

In a rush to give you more information faster than you need it, tech giants and uppity upstarts are in a race that will define a decade.

The idea of their potential offerings often supplant need. Sure, you could download a full-length movie to your phone in about a second. It doesn’t change the fact that you don’t wish to watch a movie on your phone.

The tech capabilities and promises that boffins offer often outweigh need. A written terabyte is a lifetime of reading. A terabyte of video equates to a film with, which you take issue. While lovely, horribly unnecessary.

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