5G Hardware Rollout by Jason Sugarman
The Iot (internet of Things) is rapidly relying more and more on 5G service to be implemented
correctly. This in conjunction with planned 5G rollouts by telecom providers, has created a true
rush in 5G hardware rollouts. 5G is also key to smart city developments, instant livestream with
low latency, and also the enabling of autonomous vehicles to safely navigate roads. ITPro
recently wrote an interesting piece covering these subjects.
Some of these technical issues have indeed slowed the rollout of 5G in many areas.
Here is how ZDNET explains the differences in 5G Carrier Frequencies:
● Low-band: Anything under 1GHz.
● Mid-band: Everything between 1GHz and 6GHz. This range is where C-Band lives (3.7GHz
to 3.98GHz in the US).
● High-Band: Everything above 6GHz, including mmWave signals, which operate between
30GHz and 300GHz.
These differences may not seem like much to the non technical person, but it creates bottlenecks
in the rollout of 5G hardware, and contributes to carriers rolling out different levels of 5G service,
as well as can make it difficult for interoperability to be seamless. This can create various levels of
difficulty for carriers, their customers and even governments. Lower frequency spectrum travels
farther than higher frequency, which is why many rural areas have adopted these spectrums instead of higher bands. Higher speed frequencies do not travel as far, and have a lot of difficulty in penetrating buildings.
However, in my opinion, given the demand for 5G and the capabilities it provides, all the major
carriers are rushing to deploy 5G hardware, and many of these interoperability issues will
become less and less intrusive as the carriers begin to learn how to adopt to various frequencies.