By Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner, FCC.
The U.S. leads the world in 4G wireless deployment. In fact, while we are home to less than five percent of the globe’s population, we have nearly half of all 4G subscriptions worldwide.
So far, so good. But if we want our wireless future to be bold, we need to do more than rest on our 4G laurels. Because efforts to develop the next generation of wireless technology are already under way. In short, the race to 5G is on.
I can see this clearly from where I sit at the Federal Communications Commission. The world’s wireless economies are busy planning for 5G service, with speeds ranging from one to 10 gigabits per second. South Korea and Japan have plans to deploy 5G services by the time they host the Olympics in 2018 and 2020, respectively. The European Commission has committed to support 5G research with South Korea. In China, three of the nation’s ministries have jointly established a group to promote the development of 5G technologies. There is no need for the U.S. to stay stuck in the starting gate. We can build on our 4G success — if we get going right now.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by meisterister on Friday October 31 2014, @12:52AM
I for one could not care less if I had 1 megabit or 100 gigabits on my phone when it's capped as horribly as it is. How about we see a gigabyte race instead of a gigabit race...
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday October 31 2014, @03:44AM
Capped, throttled, and probably moving towards 'fast lanes' for big providers. I'd rather have a neutral backbone than move another step towards having the internet fall further under the control of a few corporations.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday October 31 2014, @04:48AM
I'm pretty sure the big mobile providers are busy trying to figure out how to market the current network they have, with minor tweaks, as being 5G.
Just like they did last time transitioning from 3G to 4G.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Friday October 31 2014, @05:59AM
Tweak? They don't need no stinking tweaks. They will just add some imaginary feature and CALL it 5G.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Thesis on Friday October 31 2014, @01:45AM
I bet money that in the US, carries will simply do minor upgrades, if any, and call it 5G. This is exactly what happened with 4G. US carriers used the terms as PR spin, rather than follow the standards, from what I gather.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/technology/4g_myth/ [cnn.com]
http://www.cnet.com/news/is-the-at-t-iphone-4s-a-4g-phone-or-not/ [cnet.com]
(Score: 1) by willoughby on Friday October 31 2014, @08:52AM
Yep. I came here to say the same thing. I remember when my ATT iPhone 4S went from "3G" to "4G" (as indicated on the status bar) after an OS update.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday October 31 2014, @09:33AM
And according to that CNET article they do, so they are.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday October 31 2014, @03:27PM
And people in third world countries will still be getting better service for less.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @01:52AM
They will turn the bandwidth knob on the equipment they already have from 1 --> 1.5 and bam...5G.
Then charge everyone more money.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Buck Feta on Friday October 31 2014, @01:57AM
I'm still looking for a razor with 9 blades, because my 8 blade razor sucks.
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 1) by axsdenied on Friday October 31 2014, @03:02AM
May as well skip 5G and call it 6G... it will sell better
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday October 31 2014, @06:28PM
It's better if we skip straight to 10G. I will fit in better with:
Windows 10
OS X
10 Gig Ethernet
Base 10
Metric system
etc.
(Score: 1) by axsdenied on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:26AM
I like your thinking :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @04:43AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @11:39AM
No, the number means how many times they are overselling their capacity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @08:14AM
It all depends how you look at the figures. Only about 20% of the US population has a 4G subscription (same as Japan) whereas South Korea has about 60% of its population using 4G.
IMHO, it seems more rational to look at it on a per capita basis, just like GDP, in which case South Korea leads the pack and will keep doing so since they already preparing the next step (the *real* 5G, not a marketing stunt a la 4G in the US)
http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-09-19/countries-with-the-most-4g-mobile-users.html [bloomberg.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @11:46AM
Well, I got a nice list from that page by simply disabling the style. Here it is:
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday October 31 2014, @07:03PM
Is 4G actually even offered by any US carrier? I don't mean the name, I mean the standard. You can't can actual usage unless the service is offered.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Friday October 31 2014, @11:39AM
(Score: 2) by hamsterdan on Friday October 31 2014, @02:17PM
North America leading the world in telecoms? please... Before going to 5G, can we have reasonable data caps? I know telecoms also are TV providers and are afraid of Netflix, but the caps we have are ridiculous (more so in Canada where 60GB is considered a lot for residential service). Give me TV, Internet, land line and cell phone for the same price as in european countries (about the same as only one service here), and we'll talk. Paying 75$/month just so I can watch Netflix without busting my caps is totally absurd.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Friday October 31 2014, @06:34PM
I'm in canada and my data cap is 250GB (Shaw). Telus is pretty much the same.
Let me guess you are on Rogers/Bell?
(Score: 2) by hamsterdan on Friday October 31 2014, @09:26PM
Was on Videotron (Quebec). Quotas are more reasonable in other provinces.