Germany, UK to work together on speedy 5G wireless rollout

[Shawn Knight]

UK Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have announced a joint partnership to help create the next major wireless spectrum. Predictably, it’s called 5G and it is ridiculously fast compared to the 4G connections that most of us are used to today – like, 1,000 times faster.

The news came down during the CeBIT 2014 trade show in Hanover and is primarily designed to help prevent the two countries from falling behind in the technology arena compared to other nations.

The next generation spectrum will be needed to power the Internet of Things, a connected network of not only computers and smartphones, but household appliances, wearables, cars and even clothing. With so many new net-connected devices expected to come online in the next several years, 4G will have a tough time keeping pace.

If the ability to download a 1080p HD movie in about one second isn’t enough to lure you in, perhaps the price will. 5G is expected to be significantly cheaper than its 4G counterpart. For example, it will likely cost half as much as current 4G plans and offer up to 50GB of data.

Unfortunately, 5G technology is still several years away and most regions won’t receive the service until 2020. Others, however, like South Korea, will get a head start with deployment beginning in 2017 and Britain in 2019.

The University of Dresden, King’s College University in London and the University of Surrey will all work together to develop 5G in the UK and Germany.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55945-germany-uk-to-work-together-on-speedy-5g-wireless-rollout.html

 

[psycros]

And once again the wireless industry is shown to be a giant scam. We have more than enough spectrum to get everyone in the country on unlimited 3G but instead they'll just keep upping the speeds so you can hit that data cap faster. While its very likely that the speeds their blabbing about are a complete fantasy, even if they *were* obtainable there's no legitimate need for it on a mobile device. What's needed is available-everywhere wireless 3G with NO DATA CAPS.

 

[thelatestmodel]

"Others, however, like South Korea, will get a head start with deployment beginning in 2017 and Britain in 2019."

... so we can look to Canada and the US catching up in 2025.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Until the price, speed and reliability are good enough that I can cut off my home broadband and use my phone as a hotspot it's all just noise. 4G is supposed to be 100Mbps and it's not even close. 5G will also likely be a marketing stunt.

Just for the sake of arguing, let's say we can get something like 200 Mbps with a nice datacap like 20GB. So what? Streaming radio isn't going to use data any faster, netflix isn't going to use data any faster. Webpages already load right away. We're going to run into the same thing keeping 4K television down... people just won't notice or need the improvement.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"the 4G connections that most of us are used to today"
That's a generalization if I ever heard one. 4G is very thin on the ground and expensive in most of the known universe. Personally I couldn't be bothered with it.

 

[cartera]

"the 4G connections that most of us are used to today"
That's a generalization if I ever heard one. 4G is very thin on the ground and expensive in most of the known universe. Personally I couldn't be bothered with it.

Not to mention that if you have any issues with your connection the first thing your providers tier 1 support says is set your phone to 3G only....

 

[Guest]

But what is more worse for our health: 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G?