Ask HN: What products and technologies will made possible and feasible by 5G? - ThomPete
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PaulHoule
I think nothing new, but much improved.

5G has a few legs. One is a gradual improvement on 4G telephone service.
Another is millimeter-wave, which is mainly a competitor for cable.

Another leg is support for greatly reduced latency, not just from the "air
interface" but from the network interconnecting towers and other
infrastructure in the cellular network to the internet.

Once they get it down to less than the latency (maybe 30 ms or so) that it
takes to reach major "cloud" datacenters, there is the issue that you can only
get the value if your services are running on a server that is physically
close to the cellular network.

Discerning gamers might notice a difference, but will they pay AT&T and
American Tower prices in a world where people think AWS is expensive?

Factory automation people have been frustrated for years with their wireless
options. They are as averse to running more cables as householders are, but
they have much tougher requirements in all respects. Something based on 5G
could be better than what they have now.

As for IoT the 3GPP (organization behind 5G) has some standards for low-
performance access with cut-down LTE radios which have are great in terms of
compatibility with existing networks. They will continue that.

Personally though I am more interested in long-range IoT protocols that are
more related to ZigBee and ZWave than conventional wireless.

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JPLeRouzic
Because you ask, here is an idea: We are still using browsers, which offer
flat surfaces and sounds that everybody can listen too.

1\. With 5G, one camera, two micro beamers and two sets of micro loud
speakers, you can look at movies in 3D, even in a cramped place and hear
beautiful sounds that people around will not hear.

2\. You can send in real time 50 biological markers that are measured by the
daily pill that you ingest each morning (and defecate later). This enables a
health service to monitor your insulin pump as well as your tiny pacemaker and
your vagal nerve to control inflammation. There are indeed other usages but I
would refrain from mentioning them here.

