World's First 5G Phone Launched in South Korea

World’s first country to adapt 5G Technology (World’s first 5G phone)

5G mobile services are now on, officially, after the recent announcement from South Korea that the country has launched the world’s first 5G mobile network. South Korea has claimed the feat beating the US by a matter of hours! 5G, also known as fifth-generation wireless, the technology succeeds in the 4G, 3G, and 2G systems. 5G network aims at a high data rate, reduced latency, energy saving, cost reduction, higher system capacity, and massive device connectivity.

Making a leap in the race, Samsung Electronics which happens to be a South Korean telecom giant, launched Galaxy S10 5G (World’s first 5G phone), the world’s first phone with built-in fifth-generation communications technology. With this launch, the concept of 5G-enabled smartphones has picked up momentum, globally.

World's first 5G phone - samsung Galaxy S10 5G

Table of Contents

How 5G is better than 4G?

The idea behind 5G is to utilize the hitherto unused high-frequency spectrum without compromising on speed, continuity, and quality of the network. As a step up from its preceding stages, it offers numerous advantages.

4G connections tend to offer download speeds of around 20 Mbps – enough to download an HD movie (video) in 30 min. or so – 5G is expected to beat that by orders of magnitude: 500 to 1500 Mbps, fast enough to get the same film in about 25 seconds. And practically, almost everything you would do with a 5G connection would be instant except limited by factors other than connection speed.
A typical 5G cell tower can handle 100 times more unique devices than a 4G cell tower could. That means that overloaded base stations will become a thing of the past – at least until the rise of the “internet of things” means that not only is your phone connected to the internet but so are your credit cards, clothes, and cans.
The 5G standard allows for radically smaller base stations than was previously possible – about the size of a mini-fridge – which in turn means that masts (telecom towers) can be placed in locations where they would never previously have been feasible. In urban areas, that could mean a mast on every lamp-post; outside of cities, it means avoiding the unsightly blights that make it hard to get permission for new towers.
The latency of a connection is the speed that it takes for a single bit of data to do both legs of a journey. Historically, it’s taken second place to bandwidth, which is a measure of how many bits can travel down a connection in a second, but increasingly, latency is the more important factor. 5G connections, which can lower latencies to just 1ms, enable uses that haven’t previously been possible: from real-time VR connections, where high latency would introduce extremely unpleasant nausea, to remote-control robotics that can safely interact with the real world.

Gamers already know the maths of latency: the difference between a 10ms latency and a 100ms connection is the difference between being able to pull the trigger faster than your opponent!

Disadvantages of 5G

Now you might be wondering, how 5G can be a disadvantageous affair for someone? The downsides of 5G are listed below.

Radios, cell towers, and even satellites communicate using radio frequencies. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) and the radio frequencies tend to operate in the GHz range. Early reports on the 5G network show that this network is going to transmit its data in the range of around 6 GHz. Unfortunately, this radio frequency range is already crowded by many other signals, such as satellite links. With numerous types of signals operating in the estimated range of 6 GHz, it is fair to wonder whether or not the overcrowding is going to pose a problem as people try to transmit their data signals at this particular frequency. Will there be issues sending and receiving signals? Time will tell as this network frequency starts to spread.
One of the key advantages of 3G cell towers was that they could cover immense territory with relatively few cells. This is because the network didn’t require as much bandwidth, meaning networks had to deploy fewer cells. When technology made progress to 4G networks, the cells were producing more bandwidth, meaning the coverage radius of each cell was smaller. People may have noticed that their coverage may lower more often than on their 3G network. As the 5G network gets launched, this trend will continue. More no. of cell towers will be required to produce this immense bandwidth because the cells are not able to cover as much space as a 3G or 4G cell. Because more cells will need to be rolled out, 5G users should expect that their coverage may not be as widespread at first.
Infrastructure & Installation cost for 5G at an initial level may be very high. Still, there are questions on worldwide affordability.
Privacy, the most hyped issue of the world may be compromised due to the boost in AI & IoT. Strict laws should be enacted by governments and international organizations.

Conclusion

Fifth-generation (5G) has become the latest buzzword in the technology world. South Korea has taken a leap forward by becoming the World’s first 5G phone with the abrupt launch on April 5, 2019. A controversy also surfaced where the US dismissed South Korea’s launch of the world’s first 5G network as ‘stunt’.