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GL̆HUHQWNLQGVRIDPELHQWVHQVRUVWRWKHLQWHUQHW

:KDWDERXWSKRQHV"7KHELJJHVWFKDQJH*PD\EULQJLVLQYLUWXDODQG
DXJPHQWHGUHDOLW\$VSKRQHVWUDQVIRUPLQWRGHYLFHVPHDQWWREHXVHGZLWK95
KHDGVHWVWKHYHU\ORZODWHQF\DQGFRQVLVWHQWVSHHGVRI*ZLOOJLYH\RXDQ
LQWHUQHWDXJPHQWHGZRUOGLIDQGZKHQ\RXZDQWLW7KHVPDOOFHOODVSHFWVRI*
PD\DOVRKHOSZLWKLQEXLOGLQJFRYHUDJHDVLWHQFRXUDJHVHYHU\KRPHURXWHUWR
EHFRPHDFHOOVLWH

:H¶UHORRNLQJIRUZDUGWRWHVWLQJWKH¿UVWLPSOHPHQWDWLRQVRI*DVVRRQDVWKH\
DUHOLYH(YHU\\HDUZHGULYHDURXQGWKHFRXQWU\HYDOXDWLQJQHWZRUNVSHHGVIRU
RXU)DVWHVW0RELOH1HWZRUNVIHDWXUHDQGDV*UROOVRXWWKHUHVXOWVDUHVXUHWR
JHWPRUHLQWHUHVWLQJ²DQGH[FLWLQJ²WKDQHYHUEHIRUH&KHFNWKH-XO\LVVXHIRU
RXU¿QGLQJV

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The 5G Rollout
Get ready: 5G technology is finally arriving. But exactly how, where, and when
are still matters of speculation. Here are PCMag mobile expert Sascha Segan’s
informed predictions, broken down into a handy timeline.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I MAY 2019
 5G USE CASES

Streaming Games
Goodbye, Candy Crush; hello, God of War. 5G’s lower latency will make cloud-
EDVHGDSSVIHHOOLNHWKH\¶UHUXQQLQJORFDOO\RQ\RXUSKRQHDQGRQHRIWKH¿UVW
uses of that will be for high-end gaming. Sprint has made a deal with Hatch, a
game-streaming service, to debut its app on Sprint’s 5G phones, introducing
subscribers to a library of high-end streaming games—eventually.

“It will dramatically grow the addressable market for high-end, high-quality
premium gaming,” said Joseph Knowles, communications director at Hatch.

Game streaming is hot right now. Google is getting into the business with
Stadia, and Walmart is rumored to be coming out with a service. And in March,
Apple announced Arcade, its upcoming streaming-game service. Google has
said it needs a reliable 25Mbps to stream games in 1080p—something you can’t
get reliably right now on 4G but which won’t be much trouble on 5G.

Games also haven’t streamed well over mobile networks so far because of high
latency. Hatch already has a product out in Finland and Japan, but when I tried
it over an LTE network in Barcelona, the 40ms latency made action games feel a
bit sluggish. It wasn’t a great gaming experience. 5G will reduce that latency to
under 10ms.
“In Finland, the networks are good enough to do proper
cloud gaming, even on 4G,” Knowles said . “The rest of
the world is catching up on that really fast, and 5G
certainly helps.” Sprint has
made a deal
Playing AAA or console-quality games on your phone with Hatch, a
has one more hitch, though: control schemes. Hatch’s
game-
current game library contains mostly mobile games; to
streaming
stream games designed for other platforms, developers
service, to
will have to include a way to accept input from phone-
debut its app
friendly control interfaces, according to Knowles.
on Sprint’s 5G
“In many cases, that work is very doable, and it really
phones.
depends on the game and developer,” Knowles said.

Hatch isn’t the only company working toward this. At

Verizon’s Alley startup incubator, I saw streaming
startup LiquidSky show the console game Rocket
League running on a Samsung Galaxy S9 phone over
Verizon’s 5G network. There, you can play the game
on a Bluetooth controller to get around the control-
scheme issue.

“5G basically allows us to think bigger,” Knowles said.

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 5G USE CASES

Augmented Reality: Microsoft

HoloLens 2
Putting on the Microsoft HoloLens 2 made me long for 5G. The new
DXJPHQWHGUHDOLW\JODVVHVWDUJHWHGDWWKHEXVLQHVVVHFWRU¿OO\RXUYLVLRQZLWK
³KRORJUDPV´WKDWOHWDUFKLWHFWVVHHWKHSLSHVLQDZDOORUGRFWRUVVHHWKHYHLQVLQ
DERG\)RUQRZWKRXJKLW¶VWHWKHUHGWR:L)L²QRWEHFDXVH*FDQ¶WGHOLYHUWKH
SHDNVSHHGVLWQHHGVEXWEHFDXVH*FDQ¶WGHOLYHUWKHUHOLDELOLW\

³*SURYLGHVWKHVXVWDLQHGKLJKWKURXJKSXW\RXQHHGWRGRDORWRIWKHVH
VHUYLFHV:LWK*\RXFDQJHWVRPHKLJKWKURXJKSXWEXWLW¶VPRUHSHDNVSHHGV
than sustained,” said Pete Bernard, Microsoft’s principal group manager for
*FRQQHFWLYLW\

*ZLOOWDNHWKH+ROROHQVRXWRIṘFHVDQGRQWRMREVLWHVDURXQGFRQVWUXFWLRQ
sites where there’s no Wi-Fi, for instance, or across the tarmac of an airport
where workers can use augmented reality to see where things should go. It’ll
DOVRPDNH+ROR/HQVPRUHFROODERUDWLYH
³%HVLGHVPRYLQJGDWDIDVWHU\RX¶OOEHDEOHWRGRDORW
PRUHWKLQJVZLWKGHYLFHVLQSDUDOOHO´%HUQDUGVDLG
0LFURVRIW¶VFORXGEDVHG³VSDWLDODQFKRU´VHUYLFHOHWV
PXOWLSOHGHYLFHVVHHWKHVDPHKRORJUDPLQVSDFHZKLFK
is great for annotating airport tarmac, for example.
³7KHUHZLOOEHDPDVVLYHQXPEHURI+ROR/HQVHVDQG
RWKHUGHYLFHVLQWHUDFWLQJDWWKHVDPHWLPH´KHVDLG

Offloading
Split rendering, meanwhile, lets complex images be
rendered in the cloud and streamed to the HoloLens,
processing
rather than rendering locally. That needs a reliable
power to the
network with low latency—which means 5G. cloud over 5G
could lessen
Although the HoloLens 2 is lighter than the original the size and
HoloLens, it’s still a substantial $3,500 headset. weight of the
2̈RDGLQJSURFHVVLQJSRZHUWRWKHFORXGRYHU*FRXOG device, if not
OHVVHQWKHVL]HDQGZHLJKWRIWKHGHYLFHLIQRWWKHSULFH the price.
according to Bernard.

³<RX¶OOVHHGHYLFHVFRQQHFWLQJWRRXU$]XUHFORXGWKDW
DUHFRQVXPLQJHYHQOHVVSRZHUDUHHYHQOLJKWHUZHLJKW
DQGKDYHHYHQORZHUWKHUPDOVLQVPDOOHUIRUPIDFWRUV´
with 5G, Bernard said.

Bernard is excited for the “network slicing” aspect of 5G

DVZHOO&RUSRUDWHQHWZRUNVZLOOEHDEOHWRUHVHUYHWKHLU
RZQSULYDWHODQHVRI*NQLWWLQJWRJHWKHUFDPSXVHVDQG
distant locations with more reliable speed than they
could with Wi-Fi.

³,QWHUPVRIJHWWLQJSHUIRUPDQFHDQGTXDOLW\RIVHUYLFH
LQWKHQHWZRUN\RXFDQKDYHDORWPRUHFRQWURO>ZLWK
5G] than with Wi-Fi,” he said.

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 5G USE CASES

Remote Surgery
If you go to a 5G conference nowadays, you’re likely to see a video of a doctor
ZHDULQJJORYHVDQGFRQWUROOLQJURERWDUPVFXWWLQJLQWRKXPDQÀHVK5RERWLF
surgery is dramatic and makes for a great demo, but it also shows how 5G could
EHVXSHULRUWR:L)LRYHUVKRUWGLVWDQFHVZKLFKLVSDUWRIZK\ZHNHHSVHHLQJLW

“The thing about tactile handling: You need very high capacity, short latencies,
but also higher reliability,” said Thomas Noren, head of 5G commercialization
DW(ULFVVRQ³:KRZDQWVWREHRQDQRSHUDWLQJWDEOHDQGULVNDGLVFRQQHFWLRQ"´
5RERWLFVXUJHU\W\SLFDOO\KDVDGRFWRUZRUNLQJZLWKKDSWLFJORYHVDQGDYLGHR
DQGDXGLRVWUHDPFRQWUROOLQJURERWLFDUPVWKDWDUHGRLQJWKHZRUN,WFRXOGEH
performed from a distance, but it could also happen within the same room, as
WKHGRFWRUXVHVWKHURERWWRPDNHFXWVWRRWLQ\DQGSUHFLVHIRUDKXPDQKDQG

:KDW¶VW\SLFDOO\EHLQJVKRZQR̆LV*¶VDELOLW\WRGRQHWZRUNVOLFLQJDQGXOWUD
high-reliability connections with a level of consistency that you can’t get on Wi-
)LVHWXSV1HWZRUNVOLFLQJUHVHUYHVQHWZRUNFDSDFLW\IRUVSHFL¿FWDVNVRUGHYLFHV
ZLWKRXWOHWWLQJDQ\RQHHOVHDFFHVVLW
“A slice was there for audio, a slice was there for video,
DQGDVOLFHZDVWKHUHIRUWRXFK(DFKRQHKDGGL̆HUHQW
latency and bandwidth requirements,” said Peter
0DUVKDOOSRUWIROLRPDUNHWLQJPDQDJHUIRU(ULFVVRQ The thing
about tactile
Wi-Fi can’t do network slicing, right now, and it tends handling: You
WRJHWWHPSHUDPHQWDO:KHQ\RXZDQWFULWLFDOOHYHOVRI
need very high
UHOLDELOLW\\RXKDYHWRVWD\ZLUHG7KDWPHDQVWKHVH
capacity,
kinds of very sensitive tasks can’t easily be done
short
DWDGLVWDQFH
latencies, but
With single-digit millisecond latency and nearly perfect
also higher
reliability, remote operators will be able to use robots to
reliability.
GRDOOVRUWVRILQFRQYHQLHQWWDVNV1RUHQVDLG$V
DQRWKHUH[DPSOHKHVXJJHVWHG¿HOGWHFKQLFLDQVGRLQJ
maintenance on equipment—say, atop a high telephone
pole—could employ remotely controlled robots to do
LWLQVWHDG

7KHDVSHFWVRI*WKDWR̆HUQHWZRUNVOLFLQJDQGXOWUD
KLJKUHOLDELOLW\DUHQ¶WLQWKHQHWZRUNVODXQFKLQJLQ
7KH\UHTXLUH5HOHDVHZKLFKQHWZRUNVZLOOOLNHO\
LPSOHPHQWLQODWH

³,W¶VQRWJRLQJWREHLQPRVWPDUNHWVLQWKHQH[W¿YH
\HDUV,WKLQNLW¶OOWDNHDZKLOH´1RUHQVDLG

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 5G USE CASES

Broadband Replacement
Americans are frustrated with their lack of home broadband choices. T-Mobile
says that on average, we spend $80 per month for home internet, far more than
most other industrialized nations. Lack of competition is the big reason. When
we studied home ISP competition in 2017, we found that out of 20,000 ZIP
codes across the country, 70 percent of them had no more than one option for
unlimited, 25Mbps home service.

Extending wired competition has been slow. Verizon stopped building out its
)LRV¿EHUWKH*RRJOH)LEHUSURMHFWKDVGHYROYHGLQWR¿WVDQGVWDUWVDQGPDQ\
states now ban cities from establishing their own municipal networks. That
OHDYHV*DVWKHJUHDWKRSHIRULQFUHDVLQJZLUHOHVVFRPSHWLWLRQDQG9HUL]RQLV
leading the way.

“So far, what we see with the economics, the customer acceptance, and the
satisfaction makes us more bullish, not less—and it’s still very early days,” said
Nicki Palmer, Verizon’s CTO.

70RELOHDOVRSODQVWRKDYHDKRPHEURDGEDQGR̆HULQJLILWLVDOORZHGWRPHUJH
ZLWK6SULQW70RELOHVD\VLWZRXOGEHDEOHWRR̆HU0ESVVHUYLFHWRKDOIWKH
households in the US for $50 per month. Verizon
currently charges $50 to $70 per month for service of
³DWOHDVW´0ESVRYHU*

70RELOHDQG6SULQWZRXOGXVH*K]ZKLFKKDV
better range but less capacity than Verizon’s network.
3DOPHUVD\V9HUL]RQ¶VPLOOLPHWHUZDYH*QHWZRUNLV
WKHRQO\NLQGWKDWFDQFDUU\HQRXJKWUḊFWRVDWLVI\
hungry homeowners’ needs for unlimited data. At
millimeter wave, Verizon has “a gig-plus of spectrum, in
many cases…and that’s where the speed comes from.”

It’s hard to cover lots of area with millimeter-wave,

WKRXJK$QDO\VW&UDLJ0R̆HWWIRXQGLQ)HEUXDU\WKDW
each cell site Verizon set up in Sacramento as part of a
*KRPHEURDGEDQGWHVWVHUYHVRQO\DGGUHVVHV Network slicing
meaning carriers would need a slew of new sites to would let
FRYHUDQ\VLJQL¿FDQWSRSXODWLRQ9HUL]RQZLOOVWDUWLQ Verizon or New
downtown areas, where there’s already a “dense grid” of T-Mobile reserve
*VPDOOFHOOVEXWLW¶VUHDG\WREXLOGDEURDGJULGIRU guaranteed
neighborhood after neighborhood. network
capacity for
“We know how to do this,” Palmer said. their home
users.
*EURDGEDQGZLOOIXUWKHULPSURYHZLWK³QHWZRUN
VOLFLQJ´D*FDSDELOLW\WKDW¶VSDUWRIDQHZVWDQGDUG
that’s coming in March 2020. Network slicing would let
Verizon or New T-Mobile reserve guaranteed network
capacity for their home users, which shifting masses of
mobile users wouldn’t be able to mess with. It would
DOVROHWDFDUULHUR̆HUGL̆HUHQWVSHHGDQGTXDOLW\WLHUV
RQ*WKHZD\WKH\FXUUHQWO\GRZLWKZLUHGEURDGEDQG

“We can get really fancy or creative, and really meet

customers’ needs with what they want to buy and the
price they want to pay,” Palmer said.

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 5G USE CASES

Agriculture: John Deere

5G isn’t just for cities. Out in the hills of Iowa, farm-equipment maker John
Deere is looking to use big data to help farmers optimize their crops—
FURSWLPL]H"²WRJURZPRUHIRRGRQWKHLUODQGZLWKOHVVZDVWHGH̆RUW

“Farming is in a tight space right now, with market volatility and commodity
prices being where they’re at,” said Jeremy Thompson, Chief Architect at John
Deere’s Intelligent Solutions Group. There’s also a shortage of farm workers,
and potentially, a greater shortage on the horizon. Big data lets farmers do more
with less.

“We can record, right down to the plant level, types of information right after I
plant,” Thompson said. “ It’s a cost savings and a labor savings.”

Existing 4G networks can’t handle the data volumes Deere is looking to

generate, he said.

“With large farms, some of these businesses are really big, and they use a lot of
RXWVLGHSDUWLHVWRSURYLGHGL̆HUHQWFRQVXOWLQJ7KRVHGDWDVHWVKDYHWRJHWWRD
place where they can be shared, consumed, analyzed, and also turned back into
instruction,” said Thompson.
With 5G’s low latency, farmers will also be able to take
better advantage of self-driving and coordinated
equipment. Think of ten machines working together on
a common task, each sharing data based on what they
¿QGLQWKH¿HOGDQGUHVSRQGLQJLQUHDOWLPH
Farmers will
2IFRXUVHFRYHUDJHLVDQLVVXH%XW*R̆HUVXSVRPH be able to set
tools that weren’t available in the 4G era. Farmers will up their own
be able to set up their own “private” 5G networks using ‘private’ 5G
the shared, 3.5GHz CBRS band rather than waiting for networks
Verizon or AT&T to get around to covering them. using the
shared,
“You or I, if we were farmers and wanted to put up our 3.5GHz CBRS
own tower, there’s nothing to prevent [us] from doing band.
that,” Thompson said. “Today, in 4G world, there’s
absolutely a barrier there in rural America.”

Thompson estimated it would be somewhere between

DQGEHIRUH*UHDOO\WRRNR̆LQWKHUXUDO
areas where farmers need it. “I wish it was yesterday,”
he said.

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Apple and 5G: What’s the Deal?
American consumers think Apple is going to lead in 5G, according to a survey
ZHGLGLQ)HEUXDU\%XW\RX¶OO¿QG$SSOHQRZKHUHHOVHLQWKLVLVVXH)RU
the company is opting out.

This isn’t necessarily bad news for Apple. The company has a history of waiting
for technologies to settle and mature before stepping in. The iPod came three
\HDUVDIWHUWKH¿UVW03SOD\HUVDUULYHG7KHL3KRQHDUULYHGZLWK*DVLWV
FRPSHWLWRUVZHUHVZLWFKLQJWR*DQGLWJRW*/7(PRUHWKDQWZR\HDUVDIWHU
WKH+7&7KXQGHUEROWEURXJKW*WRWKH86

7KH¿UVWJHQHUDWLRQ*FKLSVHWVDUHPHVV\7KH\GRQ¶WVXSSRUWDOOWKHV\VWHPV
DOOIRXU86FDUULHUVLQWHQGWRVXSSRUW$QGIRUWKH¿UVWIHZ\HDUV*ZLOOKDYH
HLWKHUYHU\OLPLWHGFRYHUDJHRUVSHHGVQRWPXFKIDVWHUWKDQ*/7(JLYLQJ
Apple less reason to rush to include it. Also, Apple depends on Intel for its
modems (because Apple doesn’t want to pay Qualcomm’s prices), and Intel
ZRQ¶WKDYHD*UHDG\PRGHPXQWLOPLG

,WKLQN$SSOHZLOOODXQFK*LQWKRXJKQRW,WUHOLHVKHDYLO\RQVDOHV
LQ&KLQDDQG&KLQHVHZLUHOHVVFDUULHUVPLJKWGHPDQG*LQÀDJVKLS
VPDUWSKRQHVDIWHUPLG,IWKHSDUWVDUHDYDLODEOHIURP,QWHOWKDWZRXOG
make Apple’s decision.
APPLE COULD LEAD, BECAUSE SOFTWARE
MATTERS There’s a good
There’s a potential grain of truth in the perception of chance that
Apple “leading” in the 5G era, though. the first great
5G app will be
People will need a reason to buy 5G phones. Apple is far on Apple’s
better than Google when it comes to pushing its platform—
developer community to include the latest features, and that will
because they have to support fewer device models, and make it a
those models are updated more reliably. Apple’s APIs leader.
are considered cleaner and easier to use, and there’s
much less piracy on Apple’s platform than on Android.

$SSOH¶VVDOHVDUHKHDYLO\FRQFHQWUDWHGLQWKH86
ZHVWHUQ(XURSHDQG&KLQD²DOOHDUO\*FRXQWULHV7KDW
PHDQVL26GHYHORSHUVZLOOEHPRUHOLNHO\WKDQ$QGURLG
GHYHORSHUVWRWDUJHW*ZLWKWKHLULGHDVDQGWR¿QGDELJ
PDUNHWRIVLPLODU*FDSDEOHSKRQHVZKHQWKH\GR

,QVWDJUDPDQG6QDSFKDWDUHJUHDWH[DPSOHVRIDSSV
that helped drive a generation of Apple sales. Both
LPDJHKHDY\DSSVZRUNEHVWZLWK*/7(DQGERWK
ZHUHL26H[FOXVLYHVIRUPRUHWKDQD\HDU$SSOHFRXOG
be hoping a similar trend appears with 5G.

6RZKLOHWKH¿UVWVHYHUDOPLOOLRQ*SKRQHVVROGPLJKW
EH$QGURLGGHYLFHVWKHUH¶VDJRRGFKDQFHWKDWWKH¿UVW
JUHDW*DSSZLOOEHRQ$SSOH¶VSODWIRUP²DQGWKDWZLOO
make it a leader.

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6G? It’s Going to Be Wild
If you want to be a leader in the 2020s, you need to know about 5G. If you want
to be a big player in the 2030s, you have to start looking at 6G.

That’s what Antti Aumo, executive director of Invest in Finland, told me at

Mobile World Congress—and he’s right. Even as we launch 5G, they’re throwing
RQHRIWKH¿UVWFRQIHUHQFHVWRGH¿QH*XSLQQRUWKHUQ)LQODQG

Too soon? 6G is likely to launch in 2030, which means working groups to study
6G and make recommendations should start up in 2025 or so. That means it’s
time to start putting together wish lists—now. And the wish lists are wild.

According to a paper written by researchers at Virginia Tech, Finland’s

University of Oulu, and in Beijing, 6G will enable autonomous, tiny drone
swarms; “endless battery life” created by self-powering devices; multi-sensory,
full-body VR; and direct brain-to-computer interfaces.

6G will operate at terahertz frequencies so high and short-

range that today’s semiconductors can’t even access them.
And it’ll probably be a mesh network of smart devices
and surfaces, with data hopping from your jacket to your
table to your window to the lamppost outside, rather
than a centralized, cellular system.

Wireless engineers will have to think in three dimensions. They’ll be making

networks out of stacked, moving clouds emitted around devices that swiftly
transition between 6G, 5G, and even 4G as coverage waxes and wanes.

Nobody knows how to do any of this yet. And to paraphrase the great
SKLORVRSKHU-H̆*ROGEOXPHYHQLIWKH\GHFLGHWKDWWKH\FRXOGWKH\QHHGWRDVN
if they should. (The social and ethical implications of “wireless brain-computer
interfaces” are pretty mind-boggling.)

7KHUH¶VDORWRI*UXQZD\OHIW7KH*33JURXS¶V5HOHDVHZKLFKZLOO¿QDOL]H
the current round of 5G standards, isn’t even coming until mid-2020. And after
that, at least two more biannual releases will enhance 5G. But 6G is coming. We
should be aware, and we should all be part of the discussion.

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