Telecommunication industry

The telecommunications industries within the sector of

information and communication technology is made up
of all telecommunications/telephone companies and
internet service providers and plays the crucial role in
the evolution of mobile communications and the
information society.
 5G
• It’s expected that 5G, the much-discussed upcoming broadband
cellular mobile communications standard, will have a big impact
once the network rollout is here.
• The speed and bandwidth of 5G would be such that it could
effectively replace home internet connections currently using Wi-
Fi. The Consumer Technology Association has reported that 5G
will reach speeds of 10 Gbps, making it 100 times faster than 4G.
This means that a two-hour movie that would take six minutes to
download on 4G, would take less than four seconds to download
on 5G.
• Making it a reality comes with some challenges along the way.
Here are five that will figure prominently throughout the process.
 Frequency bands
•
Though 4G LTE already operates on established frequency
bands below 6GHz, 5G requires frequencies —  all the way
up to 300GHz. Some are better known as mmWave. Those
bands can carry far more capacity and deliver ultra-fast
speeds that deliver a 20-fold increase over LTE’s fastest
theoretical throughput.
• Most cellular “5G frequencies” (higher frequencies)
cannot even penetrate a piece of glass. 95% of
cellular 5G frequencies are up to 100x worse
at penetrating walls, glass, and buildings.
 Deployment and coverage
•
Despite 5G offering a significant increase in speed and bandwidth, its more limited
range will require further infrastructure. Higher frequencies enable highly directional
radio waves, meaning they can be targeted or aimed — a practice called beamforming.
The challenge is that 5G antennas, while able to handle more users and data, beam
out over shorter distances.
• Even with antennas and base stations getting smaller in this scenario, more of them
would likely have to be installed on buildings or homes. Cities will probably need to
install extra repeaters to spread out the waves for extended range, while also
maintaining consistent speeds in denser population areas. It’s likely carriers will
continue to use lower-frequency bands to cover wider areas until the 5G network
matures.
• In the future, it may mean that modems and Wi-Fi routers are replaced with 5G small
cells or other hardware to bring 5G connections into homes and businesses, thus
doing away with wired internet connections as we know them today. Spreading out
access to rural areas will be as much of a challenge as it was with LTE.
 Cost to build, cost to buy
•
Building a network is expensive, and carriers will raise the
money to do it by increasing customer revenue. Much like LTE
plans incurred a higher initial cost, 5G will probably follow a
similar path. And it’s not just building a layer on top of an
existing network — it’s laying the groundwork for something
new altogether.
• According to Heavy Reading’s Mobile operation of 5g Capex,
total global spending on 5G is set to reach $88 billion by 2023.
Once it becomes truly viable, certain device segments will be
connected in entirely new ways, particularly vehicles,
appliances, robots and city infrastructure.
 Regulations and standards
• Government regulators will figure into 5G
deployment, particularly with the additional
infrastructure required to spread out the network.
Providers will need to install new antennas, base
stations and repeaters.
• Beyond that, regulators will need to tackle 5G
services in waves across multiple vertical sectors.
These can include spectrum availability, EMF
radiation regulations, infrastructure sharing, and
cybersecurity.
 Security and privacy

This would be a challenge with any data-driven

technology, but the 5G rollout will have to contend
with both standard and sophisticated cybersecurity
threats. Though 5G falls under the Authentication and
Key Agreement (AKA), a system designed to establish
trust between networks, it would currently be
possible to track people near by using their phones. 
They could even eavesdrop on live phone calls.