It’s almost a cliché to look at the hype around 5G these days and think, “not another G!” But look closely and you’ll see that 5G is more than “just another G” – it’s an altogether different story.
In this candid interview from CommunicAsia 2017 in Singapore, Dirk Wolter, MD for Mobile Service Provider Solutions APAC Region at Cisco breaks down the Gs for us, explaining that while 2G was all about coverage, 3G was about data and 4G is about multimedia services, they’re all basically about handsets.
But 5G looks beyond the handset paradigm towards the fabled Internet of Things, which requires a different network architecture that can deliver far better network economics – even in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
The good news, according to Wolter, is that “5G is not a forklift technology. We can build on existing networks and that means the new data focus makes senses, financially. We are used to paying basically the same for our service every month, even though our data consumption probably doubles every year”. The ‘next G’ will make that happen, says Wolter. We are, according to Wolter, already on the way, and while many pundits say that we are looking at 2020 and beyond, trials are already underway.
This article and interview was first published on our sister publication Disruptive.Asia
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