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A tiny island might have the world's first 5G network, whatever that is
As we have discussed in the past, a number of companies are rushing their 5G technology without any idea what 5G means nor the ability to currently provide solid 4G speeds. Some are even marketing that they currently offer 5G speeds when they are barely able to offer 4G speeds, if that. Basically, companies are doing today what they did years ago with 4G. They use the term as much as possible and push to have the definition of 5G dumbed down to barely adequate current generation speeds.
Other companies however seem to be taking a more long term approach to 5G technology. In the last year, South Korea’s 3 major mobile operators, SK Telecom, kt, and LG Uplus, announced plans to introduce commercial 5G technology by 2020-2021. They also gave a definition of 5G technology which involved a customer having the ability to download a 800MB HD movie on their 5G network in one second.
Now, we have another story involving so-called 5G technology. This time, a small island is aiming to be the “first place in the world to launch a 5G network” while still admitting that 5G is undefined. The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown dependency island located in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland.
The British Crown dependency believes that a new technology university on the island, together with favourable regulation and its existing telecoms infrastructure could make it the “Perfect Storm” to win the 5G race. The International Centre for Technology is set to be opened in mid-2015 by the Manx Educational Foundation (MEF) in collaboration with HP and HUAWEI and it is hoped that its 40 acre campus will be used to test 5G technology. – Business Insider
According to IBTimes UK, the Isle of Man was the second nation in the world to go live with 3G technology. Therefore, a number of companies are combining their efforts to test future wireless technology on this island in 2016.
But at the end of the day, it is very simple. We don’t know what 5G technology actually entails.