Estate Living Magazine Investment - Issue 34 October 2018 | Page 58

Mobile’s
Next Generation
As providers prepare to roll out 5G mobile technology, what does this mean for us?
A generation ago, mobile video calls were the stuff of spy movies and
science fiction. Now, as mobile technology enters its fifth wave of
evolution, we’re stepping into a future that not even James Bond or Star
Trek could have imagined. And that’s not hype. Fifth-generation (or 5G)
mobile technology will deliver 10 times the reliability, 100 times the speed,
and 1,000 times the capacity of the 4G tech we’re currently using. And it’s
not just about faster data speeds: it’s about enabling the fourth industrial
revolution of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the Internet of Things.
So how did we get from our old brick cell phones to AI, VR and IoT? Ryan
van der Bergh, senior specialist: Radio Access Network at MTN, explains:
Mobile technology has been developed since the 1970s and 1980s.
[…] Roughly once every 10 years we get a new generation of mobile
communication technology, and we’re now entering the fifth. The first
generation was mobile voice calls. When all the South African operators
launched in the 1990s we used 2G, which could do phone calls and
SMSs. Then along came the mobile internet, which brought the third
generation (3G). Then 4G brought LTE, or high-speed data.
5G’s KILLER APPS
Each generation had its ‘killer’ application. 5G will deliver three
of those. The first, Van der Bergh says, is data speed.
5G will offer enhanced mobile broadband, which will
enable 4K video streaming, and virtual reality mobile
streaming, moving into augmented or mixed reality. This
involves massive amounts of streaming data, which you
can think of as huge ‘pipes’ in the sky.
The second is massive IoT technology. Van der Berg says:
‘Here you’ll get orders of magnitude of more devices,
but each will use small amounts of data. This technology
will power smart cities and smart homes. Think of it as
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