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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | OCTOBER 2020 29 THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! 5G. That stands for the fifth generation of cellular data. Most of us have our smartphones tied to a wireless phone carrier with a specified monthly data allotment or an unlimited plan. Except for telephone calls and SMS texts, everything else uses cellular data unless you're on Wi-Fi. Apple's iMessage, Google Voice, and texting apps use data, albeit, not very much. All the apps I discuss monthly use data – either over the cellular data network or Wi-Fi. Cellular data networks started appearing in the U.S. in 1980 after debuting in Japan the year before. We now refer to that analog radio system as 1G (first generation). In 1991, 2G was introduced. It was digital and permitted texting and, later, the transmission of emails. 3G significantly changed the landscape when it started in the U.S. in 2002. To quote justaskthales.com, "3G revolutionized mobile connectivity and the capabilities of cell-phones…. 3G was much faster and could transmit greater amounts of data. This means that users could video call, share files, surf the Internet, watch TV online and play online games…." In effect, 3G enabled smartphones. 3G is still sufficiently robust that it still exists as a backup for when other faster forms of communication are unavailable. In fact, 3G wasn't replaced so much as enhanced. Most of us connect to the LTE network today. LTE for Long Term Evolution is a major improvement over 3G in terms of speed but not sufficiently different in technical terms to fully quality as 4G. Nevertheless, I dare say most of us are satisfied with the speed of LTE. Which brings us to 5G. This will be a truly generational change. Much is still being sorted out with respect to 5G specifications. A good download speed today is 200 megabits per second. A good download speed with 5G will be 1 gigabit per second – five times as fast. (Don't confuse megabit, which typically refers to speed, with megabytes which usually refers to the size of a file or storage space. That said, there is a relation between the two – one megabyte equals eight megabits.) So, what does this mean for you and me? Well, here it comes – that depends. For one, not all 5G will be the same. 5G will be deployed in three different versions – low-band, mid-band, and high-band. Low-band uses the same frequencies as LTE and offers the greatest distance and object penetration but with data speeds not unlike what we get now. Mid-band can exceed 1 gigabit per second within a shorter range and with less penetration. High-band speed can reach 10 gigabits per second with even less range and no penetration. Because of range, the higher up on the spectrum the more antennas per given area. The good news is that the higher the frequency, the smaller the antenna. The type of 5G you get will depend on how your wireless carrier deploys its 5G. And it may not be uniform geographically. Different locations may have different needs. From a single user standpoint, we may not benefit from 5G's higher speed. So what if a page on our phones loads instantaneously compared to having to wait a second or two. On the other hand, if we want to download a movie to our phone or watch a television show, the difference in speed may we dramatic. And if you play interactive games on your phone, you will definitely value the higher speeds. Looking at 5G from the single-user point of view may not even be the right way to conceive of 5G. We know that autonomous driving is being developed rapidly. Right now, it depends on a car's radar and lidar sensors and GPS location/mapping data, among other things. With 5G, cars will be able to communicate with each other. Location data could be instantaneous. 5G is only starting up. Most of us couldn't get it anyway. To do so, once it's available, we'll need three things – a new 5G phone, true (not the imaginary coverage in ads) coverage, and advancement to a more expensive data plan from our carrier. So, remember. 5G is for cellular data, the stuff we use when we're using an app and we're not on Wi-Fi. (Caveat. There will be 5G plans for the home. But that's a different story.) LTE will still be around for many years to come. Your current phone will last you a long time. If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. Life In The Fast Lane With 5G

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