5G Network – What You Must Know.

5G Network – What You Must Know.

What is 5G? – It is the next big thing in Mobile Technology and the 5th generation of wireless communications technology. In technology, things move on very fast and technology does become obsolete quickly – remember your cassette player, vcd/dvd/blu ray players? They are sadly no more in the scheme of things.

Most of the technology companies are always in competition to own the best product/system in order to have the largest share of the market. Are you aware that as soon as either Apple or Samsung release a new flagship, they are investing in research and development for the next iteration – they are that fast and that’s how to remain a major player in an ever evolving industry where competition is massive.

Whatever you do with your mobile phone or devices right now, the new technology would quadruple the speed and allow you to do it faster and better. Currently, 4G mobile networks average speed is about 45Mbps (Megabits per seconds), if you think your internet is fast, then wait for this – the 5G network is offering 1Gbps (Gigabit per second, this means 1,000Mbps, yes you heard me right). This means a 1gb data in the cloud could be downloaded to your mobile device in 1minute! It’s that fast.

What are the benefits of 5G?

• It offers an extremely fast internet, uploading and downloading speeds are unbelievably fast with no comparison to any other mobile networks. This is paradise for video gamers etc.

• It allows more devices to access the mobile internet at the same time without issue

• Video and Audio calls will become clearer with zero glitches like those currently being experience with 4G

• The current 4th generation network is heavily congested. Radio and tv stations are now online, music streaming and movie platforms are now online, social media heavy usage is a factor. Hence, the breakdown or slow connection we experience now and then. 5G is here to fix that

• It will improve performance, reliability, stability, integrity, cost and efficiency. These improvements will cut across various industries, from Telecom, Finance, Transportation, Healthcare, Entertainment to Education, Construction, Retail, Military etc.

• The traditional landlines are being phased out, people are now relying more on their mobile phones for call, messaging, media and videoconferencing and more people are now working from home than ever – 5G to the rescue

• The network is capable of supporting up to a million devices per square kilometer, they will all have a stable and reliable access to internet with zero disturbance

• Downloading heavy movies for hours is now history, streaming is the future

What are the challenges of 5G?

• Expensive – Just like every other new technology, it won’t be cheap and by default won’t be available for all – especially the poor and residents in third world countries where most are still using the 3rd generation (3G Network). Same goes to poor communities in the western countries

• Coverage – Currently, 5G network is available only in selected Cities around the world. This is not unusual, all 4G masts would require upgrades and does take a while to complete such a huge project, so priority is given to cities where money can be made because of the availability of potential users

• Devices – Your current device wont support 5G, which means an upgrade would be required. 5G devices are not cheap. To enjoy the 5G network, you would require a compatible device. Apple currently doesn’t support 5G. Samsung is the top major brand in 5G at the minute

• Radiation, just like any wireless technology is dangerous to health; it is a risk but not a threat to humanity

The Politics and the Conspiracy Theory

It’s no longer a secret that Huawei owns the largest 5G core infrastructures across the World, this is not going down well with the super powers like the US who thinks the security and integrity of data would be at a big risk if a Chinese company becomes that powerful. The US has the World’s political power and China has the World’s economic power. It’s a war of the gladiators and they are out to play.

The US insist on building the next network revolution even though the Chinese company was fast enough to penetrate the western markets to sign contracts in building their 5G networks. It was an easy decision for most of these countries because Huawei not only provide mature services but cost-effective equipment and affordable resources along with the technical know-how.

Unfortunately for Huawei, the world is not seeing just the brand but the hands of the Chinese Government who are desperate to grab all the power they can get to control the world. There is no clear difference between the company and its home government. The sad part for Huawei is that the company has built the impression that it’s either Huawei or no 5G for the world.

Huawei currently has about 50 Core infrastructure building contracts in about 30 countries across the globe, they may end up as the most powerful Telecommunication firm in the world and the US doesn’t like that at all.

Huawei is the largest telecommunication equipment manufacturer in the world and the largest smartphone maker in the world – shocking right? They are way ahead of Apple and Samsung. This Chinese company is that powerful!

That being said, there are other players in the 5G cake sharing business. Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson and Qualcomm are investing heavily in 5G and playing catch-up with the giant of a company from China whose dream is “To stand on top of the world”. These companies invest billions of dollars into research and development and they must have covered the implication of this technology on the public.

It is the US vs China – and there are a lot of conspiracy theories ongoing. For the US to take over the control and ownership of the 5G Network, they need to fight a cold and dirty war using the general people and the using of extensive mind games to paint China black and program the people on the “Actual Intention” of China.

Unfortunately, people can be easily bought these days via propaganda – because an article is written on a subject by a Professor or a PhD holder doesn’t make it a fact. Unfortunately, anybody with a smartphone and access to the internet is now and expert on any topic.

What we are experiencing is a Political, Economic, Power and Money war, a lot is involved and of course what country wouldn’t want to be calling the shots. The US has been the world power house for so long that Russians and the Chinese are willing to shake the table to balance the world power. I agree with the US that it’s risky for one country to have too much power, maybe it’s about time for power sharing, the US is already a very powerful country by all standards.

On Radiation Emission.

It is worth mentioning that all mobile operators around the world do not have immunity to government regulations and the law of the states. Therefore, they are required to ensure that radiation emissions from mobile masts are below limits. I once worked with Vodafone and I can assure you that even changes to ordinary tariff goes through a litany of checks so how much more would the introduction of a new service such as 5G go through with the compliance department to ensure that the government won’t come after them? No company would like to be in the media for a negative reason. They are required to comply with standards, ethics and sets of code of conduct.

There is indeed radiation from these masts just as there was with 3G, 4G and electricity, including from our own home electronics devices etc. but; they must have gone through controls, quality checks and approvals before being accepted as a no threat to the public. The fact remains that anything that has a mobile connection must have some degree of waves but they are not the same as X-Ray machines or any other machines with waves that are limited to the healthcare sector, those have higher frequencies and extensive exposure to them could be harmful to humans.

I have noticed that many making social videos or posting on this issue do not have the capacity or knowledge to contribute on this topic. Many are referring to Fibre Optics as 5G, they are unfortunately, not the same. 5G is a mobile network just like 4G – It’s a wireless connection, whereas Fibre Optics is a cable network that gets connected into our homes for an extremely fast Internet just like the 5G. They have a zero correlation.

This fear usually occurs anytime there is a new technology, iPhone was dangerous at initial introduction over a decade ago! 3G was bad for health! 4G was not good for us! All those who campaigned against those technology are now using the same technology to promote and disseminate their ideas, how about that?

Did you know that Coffee is Carcinogenic? – It has the potential to cause cancer! But we drink it anyway.

Did you know that WIFI is also Carcinogenic? Similar potential to the above, but we do connect to it at work, at home, shops or visiting friends! In fact, we can’t live without it.

Did you know that Pickles are Carcinogenic too? But we eat them anyway because they are tasty and “healthy” – did you know that, this is just cucumber that got soaked in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation?

But here is the million-dollar question – does anything Carcinogenic pose a “threat” by default? – Not necessarily! Because they have been quality checked and controlled before production.

Now, let us go back to Africa – to start with, we do not have 5G and people are dying every minute like chickens anyway? Is 5G responsible for these deaths? People are getting infected with coronavirus anyway without 5G? So, what is the correlation here? People living in Uturu or in a village near Shendam where 3G is still a luck still got infected with the virus anyway – what is the explanation for this?

Is there 5G in Abeokuta, Lagos, Ibadan and Akure where cases of coronavirus have been recorded? That should be enough proof to those who are confused or getting railroaded into this fallacy and conspiracy theory that only big businesses and governments would benefit from.

When we mention Wuhan as the origin of Coronavirus because they have launched their 5G, let us remember that they equally launched their 5G around the same time in their top cities just like the UK, US, Ireland and other European Countries did too. By the way, the headquarter of Huawei is in Shenzhen and not in Wuhan.

China managed to contain the virus and they no longer have deaths recorded, but they still have their 5G! So how did the radiations managed to stop?

People are still contracting the virus across the globe in thousands daily and most of these countries have no 5G! Food for thought.

When we think of the cons that technology has brought us, let us equally think about the numerous pros it has brought us, especially in the healthcare sector where amazing things are being achieved to save humanity.

To round up, please do not die before your time out of fear from “Infodemic” which is becoming more of a threat to humanity than the actual pandemic. The paranoia about 5G is baseless and it is a hoax, I am not saying the network is completely harmless but the effect has been extremely over exaggerated.

Just so you know, all radio waves do have effects like killing of cells (Long exposure to it). Similarly, Coronavirus will not survive the same radiation. Therefore, no further discussion on this. The virus is real but not a product of 5G network.

Technology is not evil but here to make our lives easier and better. Be ready for 6G, 7G and so on. Humans are designed to develop and not to be stagnant.

Thank you for your time.

Tunde Oluomo is writing from Dublin, Ireland.