11.12.2019
Benefits for private users and society:5G is much more than smooth mobile gaming
With 5G, users can play mobile games faster - but is that all? 5G offers enormous advantages for everyone - for industry and society as well as for the individual. From social networking to smartphone use, 5G will fundamentally change many areas. This will benefit the customer as a part of society and as an individual in two ways.
From Smart Device to Smart City
Millions of devices can be networked together - from Smart Devices to Smart Cities.
The Internet of Things (IoT) already exists in today's digital everyday life over 4G. But above 5G, the range of applications increases enormously once again, so that millions of devices can be networked with each other within the framework of "Massive IoT" - from Smart Device to Smart City. The watch on your wrist becomes a Smart Device. For the parallel use of different devices - such as smartphones, fitness watches, tablets and dog collars - users often only need a single contract, for example with the O2 Free Connect function.
The smart home controls the alarm clock, the morning light, a cleverly switched heating system, coffee machine and garage door - for a better start to the day. In addition, Smart Metering allows electricity, gas and water consumption to be read automatically. For business customers, this is already possible today via Narrowband IoT and LTE-M. The times when you had to be available for a reading at home over a period of several hours are a thing of the past.
In the Smart City, consumers will benefit from networked driving in the future thanks to 5G. Intelligently networked buses or cars make the journey to work more comfortable and relaxed, as road users, vehicles and road infrastructure such as traffic lights communicate with each other in real time (so-called Vehicle-to-X communication, V2X). This makes it easier to avoid accidents and the customer experiences a much more stress-free transport from place to place.
Drive for mass AR/VR use
Another very hot field of application of the future is Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Since data transmission via 5G has a latency of less than one millisecond and is therefore almost real-time, the 5G network is fuelling the mass use of VR and AR applications. This becomes primarily relevant for industrial applications with locally limited network infrastructures. In the coming years, however, private customers will also benefit from increasingly lower latency.
Manufacturers will be able to present their products in virtual showrooms and users will be able to configure them according to their needs without having to be on site. Customers will be able to use not only mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, but also "DSL via radio" (Fixed Wireless Access) in the future. This access via the 5G mobile network (mmWave) will be a powerful alternative to the classic fixed network. Telefónica Deutschland has already used 5G frequencies in Hamburg to test wireless DSL connections and has successfully achieved speeds of up to one gigabit per second.
Festival visit without network loss
Without a fast net, the atmosphere at festivals is quickly at rock bottom.
But even those who prefer to immerse themselves in real rather than virtual worlds at major events, for example, will benefit from 5G. When many people get together at soccer games or festivals, without a fast network the mood at festivals is quickly in the basement. Thanks to the high capacities of the 5G network, all festival or stadium visitors can easily and simultaneously upload their impressions to social media, stream videos of other users in parallel and receive exciting or entertaining additional information about the event.
Whether at the festival or at home: A 5G-capable smartphone is required to use the 5G mobile phone standard. O2 customers can choose from an ever-increasing range of devices with a good price-performance ratio.
The main advantages of 5G for the private customer and society are therefore first of all higher speed, more network capacity for the use of various applications and extremely short latency times for real-time communication. And in the future, thanks to smart devices and intelligent networking, much more will be possible for customers.