5G is Here, But It's Only the Start of Something Much Bigger

摘要

WITH THE ROLLOUT of early commercial services, the 5G revolution is happening now and will touch more lives in more ways and be more disruptive than perhaps any before it. This is probably because the revolution is not about 5G technology itself, but instead is about the many visions of the connected world that finally can be made real. We've been dreaming big with concepts like the IoT and autonomous mobility, e-health, and Industry 4.0, to name a few. The potential benefits are huge, but so is the scale of the connectivity they envisage. 5G is designed to handle this, but sheer volume is only one part of the equation. Exciting applications linked to mobility and industrial automation, for example, are obviously time-critical too. 5G's provision for ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) will enable the timely responses needed to ensure safety and proper coordination between machines or large numbers of self-driving vehicles moving within the same geographical area.