The advent of 5G technology has been in the headlines this year and to say it has divided opinion is an understatement. As a VoIP reseller you may be asked about 5G, so this week we thought we would look at 5G: The Risks And Benefits
What Is 5G?
5G is broadband to 4G’s dial up modem. In technical terms, 4G at it’s best could perform at a maximum download speed of 100 Mbps (Megabits per second), whereas 5G has a peak download speed of 20 Gbps (Gigabits per second).
Cisco put together a great little video that explains internet speeds that is definitely worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjSO10KTUAE
From a user’s perspective, it would eliminate any delays or lagging in video streaming and vastly improve download speeds.
How Does 5G Work?
5G uses shortwave radio signals called millimetre waves. These shorter waves created a new range of bandwidth that can be utilised.
Although these millimetre waves are stronger than those used for 3 and 4G technology, they can’t travel as far so the range is shorter.
Which leads us to one of the more controversial aspects of 5G.
5G Towers
Because of the shorter range of the 5G signal, to stop the radio waves from fading they need more transmitter towers than conventional mobile phones.
The towers are much smaller though and can be installed on the side of buildings or on the roofs of tower blocks.
So, effectively 5G towers will replace large, high energy consuming and costly transmitters with low energy, low cost smaller towers.
5G: The Risks And Benefits
5G Risks To Health
As a VoIP reseller you may get asked about stories seen in the newspapers and shared on social media about the possible health risks to people from 5G and the adverse effect the higher frequencies could have on the environment and nature.
Most balanced articles on the subject conclude that at this stage any possible risk to health or nature is minimal but as 5G hasn’t been used worldwide for a long period scientist can’t be 100% certain.
In fact, the World Health Organisation have concluded that so far that “Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health”
This has of course led to various conspiracy theories being bandied around, you may get asked about these theories, but they are just theories, so we would recommend pointing people to articles like the two we have just posted above that are fact based and balanced.
5G Benefits For VoIP
We mentioned the improvements in speed from 5G earlier but that isn’t the only benefit. The way that 5G handles bandwidth will make a huge difference to VoIP Technology.
Currently 4G uses a certain amount of bandwidth, the mobile providers aren’t able to increase it, so if mobile traffic is heavy then that is why users notice buffering and call lagging.
5G uses bandwidth in a completely different way, the amount of bandwidth isn’t limited so if one direction of traffic is in high usage then the 5G hardware shifts users to another section so that they always have consistent and high-quality video and audio calls.
This means that VoIP will become the number one communications solution. Video calls have long had a certain stigma about call quality and we are sure that we have all at one time or another had a video call where the screen froze, or the sound dropped out.
With these issues being resolved by 5G technology then businesses and domestic users will look to more ways that VoIP solutions can be used.
Get In Touch
So, we hope that 5G: The Risks And Benefits was useful for you and that the rollout of 5G technology has the potential to make the future of VoIP communication very exciting indeed.
If you do have any more question on VoIP and 5G or have seen any stories in the news or have questions from customer that you would like help, then please do not hesitate to contact us.
Our team of experts will be more than happy to have a chat and also give you further information on our VoIP solutions and reseller options.
You can telephone us on 03300881182, email sales@vipvoip.co.uk or via our online contact form here.