In this fast-growing world, technology is always one step ahead of us. Iterations are what make technology grow, as well as, more sustainable and reliable. 5G is one such iteration for internet connectivity. The amount of time it will take to experience fully functioning nationwide 5G is hard to determine. The press around T-Mobile claims that we are already there. While they technically have a nationwide 5G network, it does not match the promises of the 5G capabilities. Here are the benefits of 5G that make it so much more technologically forward than other services.

Speed

Speed, rightly so, steals the spotlight away from the other benefits of 5G. Speed is the demand of the millennial world and 5G is, in other words, speed itself. Utilizing the millimeter Wave or mmWave technology, 5G speed is tested to be performing over 1Gbit/s in the real world today. It can reach almost 20Gbits/s in theory. With the sub-6 GHz mid-band and low-band, the max speed of 5G might be much lower than the number quoted above. In real-world scenarios, the speed of advanced 4G networks can be faster than the deployment speed of 5G. Apart from speed, there are 8 total attributes or “currencies.”. Out of these 8 attributes, latency and reliability are 2 of the major attributes which make 5G universally more beneficial.

Latency

For many CTOs’ and CIOs’ business infrastructures, latency is more important than speed. In the real-world, the speed 4G LTE networks provide is more than sufficient for most business operations, but the main problem is latency. Even the best LTE networks have a latency of at least 30 milliseconds (ms) and more often, much closer to 100ms or higher. These high levels of latency not only make applications like VoIP potentially unusable but also dramatically affect the productivity and usage of every application.

With respect to speed, latency may also vary depending on the “version” or spectrum of the 5G used. As carriers implement edge or near-edge computing, it is expected that 5G will reach sub-20ms, with theoretical capabilities of close to sub-1ms. We are still likely a few years away from seeing sub-1ms latency on a carrier’s public network. But early tests of the deployed mmWave 5G networks have typically yielded average latencies of about 15 ms to 25ms where some tests had gone just below 10ms. These latency levels should satisfy most current business needs and open up additional use cases. We have seen real-world latency figures ranging somewhere between the low to mid-teens. The 5G won’t satisfy the likes of technologies such as autonomous driving, virtual reality, and augmented reality. To achieve the 1ms or less latency goal, computing will have to be moved far out to the edge. Carriers are still figuring out how to pull this off.

Reliability

Over the years, reliability has been a big question mark for wireless connections. But it is expected that 5G will be the first to provide five 9’s. It has promised SLAs (Service Level Agreements) but it is yet to be determined whether or not carriers offer it. It would be remarkable and groundbreaking if they are able to reach this level of reliability and availability. In this case, 5G will become very valuable to all the businesses with the combination of ultra-low latency, 1Gbps+ speeds, and five 9’s reliability.