Imagine this: Hundreds of drones, each one tinier than a grain of rice, being intravenously injected into your body. Remotely controlled by trained doctors, these drones will “search and destroy” with 100 percent targeted precision every tumor, cancer cell, or whatever else may be taking severe toll on your health.
This isn’t science fiction anymore. We are now entering a new phase in wireless innovation as the 5G technology ushers in the Star Trek generation. Cars that drive themselves; refrigerators that monitor and tell us the freshness level of their contents, and television sets that order for you your medicines and other essentials through voice commands.
Operated essentially through artificial intelligence or AI, 5G brings to the table greater and more intelligent automation. We’re not talking here about the use of robots, but the ability to fully integrate supply chains across industry, sector, and national boundaries. 5G can likewise aid in the advancement of self-directed vehicles and address transport problems such as traffic congestion, pollution, and collisions, creating a smart transport system.
For example, 5G will facilitate direct communication from vehicle to vehicle, without tapping on to the network to prevent traffic congestion and delays. Self-driving vehicles are efficient in alerting others of shifting conditions in the weather or unforeseen incidents on the road, such as collisions, and will allow autonomous vehicles to drive close to each other in what are called “platoons”—a group of vehicles going in the same direction at a given time.
But the real deal here is 5G’s military application. You can just imagine why developed countries are fighting tooth and nail to be ahead in this 5G race of attrition.
Fifth-generation wireless or 5G is a novel reconfiguration of cellular technology. It is designed to boost the speed and receptiveness of wireless networks. Data transmission via 5G over broadband networks can trek at multigigabit speeds—an estimated 20 gigabits per second—outstripping wireline network speeds with latency of 1 millisecond or lower (which is ideal for applications that require real-time feedback).
At the moment, however, 5G is limited to mobile phone applications, with South Korea leading other countries in 5G deployment. As of January 2020, South Korea has rolled out 5G to 85 cities, even as government officials estimate that 90 percent of the country’s mobile users will be on a 5G network by 2026.
After South Korea, China ranks second as the country with the most cities in which 5G is available. As of January 2020, China had deployed 5G technology in 57 cities. In October 2019, three major wireless carriers in China launched 5G networks: China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. While coverage is limited in some areas, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are the cities with the best coverage thus far.
The US is ranked third with AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Sprint Corp. (S), and T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS) actively developing, testing, and deploying 5G components. As of January 2020, 5G had been deployed in 50 cities in the United States. Sprint has rolled out mobile 5G in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. AT&T has made its mobile 5G+ network live for consumers in parts of 35 cities and 190 markets.
But the race to use 5G beyond cellular phones has been tightly contested by the US and China, with the US Department of Commerce agreeing to closely work with Huawei on setting standards for next-generation technologies. Analysts say this move seeks to prevent China from gaining undue advantage through “unethical means.”
I believe that such move is tactical because it affords American firms to share in the establishment of quality standards and ethical rules win the regulation of such perilous technologies.
It will be recalled that Huawei was blacklisted in the US and was categorized as Entity List in May 2019. American firms were banned from doing business with Huawei and were required to apply for licenses to sell to it, although the move puzzled some US firms which are participants in standard-setting discussions, and organizations where Huawei was also involved. The rule has thus been changed, and a clarification that US firms can work with Huawei in standard-setting bodies had been issued.
US Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement that “[t]he United States will not cede leadership in global innovation. This action recognizes the importance of harnessing American ingenuity to advance and protect our economic and national security.” He added, “The Department is committed to protecting US national security and foreign policy interests by encouraging US industry to fully engage and advocate for US technologies to become international standards.”
The Information Technology Industry Council, a global tech trade body, hailed the move. As quoted by CNBC, ITI Senior Director of Policy for Asia said: “It is exceptionally important for US companies to be at the table. Being forced to cede their seat at the table to the likes of Huawei no less, was in nobody’s interest, except the Chinese. The last thing we want to see is unintended consequence that negatively affects US companies’ competitiveness.”
For decades, US and European companies have been in the forefront in setting technology standards, but with China and other countries keeping pace, the set of standards the countries have to abide by have yet to be established.
The way I see it , based on its confidence in trailblazing in technology innovations, China wants to develop its own national standards which it also wants to push globally. With Huawei already firmly entrenching itself inside telecom’s standard-setting bodies, that push is as real as it can be.
China is embarking on a 15-year draft which it calls China Standards 2035. To say that it is highly ambitious is an understatement. This has certainly created ripples in the telecom industry since the blueprint sets Beijing’s objective to rule global standards for the next generation of technologies. Huawei is China’s foot soldier in achieving such dream given its potency in the spheres of telecommunications, mobile phones and cloud computing. If US companies will be left out in standards setting, most analysts fear that American technology firms could lose their relevance.
Fortunately, although belatedly, the US Department of Commerce has grasped the weight of having US firms actively participate in setting future standards. “US participation and leadership in standard-setting influences the future of 5G, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and other cutting-edge technologies,” it said.
Despite health concerns about the 5G technology—with experts saying that the radiation it emits can cause cancer and other deadly and debilitating diseases—the race is on! Within the next few years, the Philippines too will hopefully be part of the Star Trek generation.
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com