Ever since the internet evolved from its dial-up origins, connection speeds have been getting faster and faster.
According to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association in the US, the internet has at least doubled in speed every year since 2007.
Mobile internet is no different.
Last year, communications technology company Huawei and Norwegian telecom provider TeliaSonera announced a partnership to provide 4.5G coverage, meaning that Oslo has the fastest mobile internet connection in the world. Six years earlier, the two companies launched the first 4G network. It was fast at the time, but is 10 times slower than what's available now.
While the 4.5G network is nimble enough to satisfy users' data-guzzling ways for the time being, the growing consumer appetite insists that it be no more than a stepping stone toward 5G deployment. Huawei and similar companies are starting to figure out how they're going to deliver 5G.
Here are five important things you need know about it:
1. It will liberate the Internet of Things.
Journalists and tech insiders have long touted the virtues of the Internet of Things (IoT). Everyday appliances and objects hooked up with sensors and connected to the web. But it's so far been limited to the home and confined to the boundaries of the Wi-Fi network.
"5G must not only support people-to-people communications," said Huawei's Rotating CEO Eric Xu at the Global MBB Forum in 2014, "but also enable connectivity between people and things and between things and things."
With the promise of new technology like self-driving cars, the IoT will need to go mobile in the future. The increase in connection speeds that should come with 5G make this more of a possibility and less of a pipe dream.
2. It will require considerable investment.
Rejigging an entire cellular network doesn't come cheap; it requires a significant amount investment. The South Korean government estimates it will take about $1.5 billion (USD) to make 5G a reality there. Huawei has already committed $600 million (USD) on research and innovation for 5G technologies by 2018.
3. The economic payback is considerable.
A recent study by Plum Consulting looked at the potential benefits of a 5G network to the economies of the UK, Hungary, Italy, and Sweden. By allowing for a larger capacity and speedier downloads than what their current networks offer, the use of 5G outdoors could grow to 2.7 billion euros by 2028 — and that's a conservative estimate.
4. It will be a necessity, not a luxury.
Internet use is growing at a spectacular rate. It's what's driving the increases in connection speeds, and not the other way around. Huawei estimates that by the time 5G comes along there will be about 1 million web connections per square kilometer, roughly 100 times what 4G networks are currently dealing with. To manage this explosion of mobile Internet use, 5G may feel more like a need than a want.
5. It will free us from Wi-Fi dependency.
On a 3G connection, it takes about 70 minutes to download an 8G HD movie. In other words, you're usually better off waiting until you can find a Wi-Fi hotspot. But if your phone were connected to a 5G network, that same movie would take just 6 seconds to download. That would take away the feeling "making do" with mobile internet in between Wi-Fi connections — instead the mobile connection would be just as good.
Huawei Technologies is live at Mobile World Congress 2016. Learn about Huawei's key strategies and blueprints for the future here.
This post is sponsored by Huawei.
