5G is radically different from 2G, 3G and 4G technologies. It considers industrial use of Internet.
By Shruti Dhapola
“By 2020, mobile Internet connectivity in India will stand at 100 per cent and half of this will be on 3G and 4G. However, the next level of innovation will come with 5G,”Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg said in New Delhi recently.
“By 2020, we will have a lot more connected devices. Additionally, video traffic will also go up by 22 times and the mobile device might becoming like a TV where a user receives live feeds. The Internet of Things will also drastically change how we consume and interact with each other,” said Vestberg, who was in town to launch the company’s new radio systems.
Of course, more connected devices will mean greater dependence on the Internet while maintaining speeds and connectivity. This is where 5G is seen as the next logical step. “5G is radically different from 2G, 3G and 4G technologies. While these earlier technologies were geared at consumer consumption of the Internet, 5G thinks about industrial, enterprise use of Internet. Not only is it extremely fast, but it is also meant for a diverse number of uses.”
He also spoke on how ICT (Information and Communications Technology) will drastically change society. “By 2020 there will more than 7.7 billion mobile broadband subscriptions across the world and 70 per cent of the world will have a smartphone. More so ICT will help boost jobs and the economy across the world,” he said.
For Ericsson, the focus going forward will be on 5G and helping network operators solve the existing issues with services. “Strengthening our position as a leading software company, as well as establishing early leadership in the standardisation and realisation of the next generation of mobile networks, or 5G, are key factors for success,” said Vestberg.
While Ericsson expects 5G to be commercialised by 2020, its current approach is to be 5G-ready. The new radio system from the company comes with support for multi-standard, multi-band and multi-layer technology, and will thus support 2G, 3G, and 4G while being ready for 5G. The company claims the system is also energy-efficient and compact which will make it easier for network operators when setting it up on towers in India.
Ericsson also announced the upgrade of the existing Ericsson Cloud System by introducing Ericsson HDS 8000 (Hyperscale Datacenter System)in India. Ericsson HDS 8000 uses Intel Rack Scale Architecture to improve efficiency, utilization, at data centres.