5G: Welcome to instant internet

5G will change everything. What 2, 3 and 4G have improved on, 5G will revolutionise and open up even more online possibilities. The internet-of-things will become the virtual internet of everything!

5G’s lightning speed will operate in almost real time – so fast it will actually be almost 200 faster than a human’s usual reaction time.

But most of us have still never used it, so it’s tough to understand how fast it will be or the full scope of things it will change.

Whilst the earlier generations of internet speed – 2G, 3G and 4G LTE – have slowly killed off entire business models (think CDs, newspapers, travel industry, telephony, gaming, shopping, publishing, transport), 5G (fifth generation) will have an even more profound affect on those and new emerging industries.

But whilst 5G’s speeds will be revolutionary and open up the internet to new and emerging industries, it has a distance problem and can only be transmitted over shorter distances than 4G. That means more towers transmitting the new 5G equivalent of ‘wi-fi’ to your device.

This is 5G on the brand new Samsung Galaxy S10 5G in front of my hotel. It's crazy the difference a month makes. #FirstToRealTime pic.twitter.com/Syxc7HGrqn

— George L. Koroneos (@GLKCreative) May 16, 2019

The dream of ‘instant internet’, speeds that would allow you to download 120 4K movies in seconds, hear music instantly, in full broadband stereo, etc, etc, etc… is still just around the corner in Thailand.

But Huawei Technologies, Nokia and Ericsson are among the companies that took part in testing fifth-generation wireless network technology back in February this year. The Government’s NBTC says it wants Thailand to be one of the first Asian countries to make the jump to 5G.

China’s Huawei spent $5 million on related facilities as it tries to sustain its overseas expansion while countries around the world move to restrict its participation in local network projects.

Also, your current phone won’t be compatible with 5G. But all the major phone makers are gearing up, and in some cases announced, new 5G compatible phones.

Still, for the time being, it’s nice to see that the dream is slowly becoming a reality.