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layout: post
title:  "The State of 5G"
published: true
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Note that this was my Management 241 paper but slightly modified. I thought I should include this because it's on a hot topic and mobile tech is certainly evolving at a rapid rate. I hope you enjoy!

**What is the country you chose and why did you select that one?**

The country I choose for this particular project and I desire to bring to this new country is Germany. Germany is fairly stable and it can stand on it’s own two feet if serious calamity suddenly happened. Why choose that one?

As part of my research, I looked up which countries that will get the 5th generation of cell service, or 5G, and needless to say, only a few countries are getting this cell service which they are Japan, South Korea, China and the United States. All the first world countries in the world and only four of them are getting next generation cellular service. However, 5G is growing at an absurd rate, as vendors and service providers in first world countries work on 5G trials and test 5G with select end users in mind. The 5G infrastructure hasn’t reached our quaint little city of Traverse City but has already towers and radios have been put in place in big metropolises in the United States, namely like Houston, Texas and Sacramento, California.

I chose Germany because no European country is getting the 5G infrastructure in the near future and, Germany had the highest population out of the European countries, the largest GDP per capita out of the European countries, and the highest number of mobile cellular phone subscribers, or users, out of the European countries made this particular topic a good choice. Ultimately, since eastern countries, excluding the United States, are receiving 5G infrastructure this year, and no European or Middle Eastern countries are receiving and having 5G worldwide could provide new jobs, bring trillions of dollars worth of revenue for business such as Qualcomm and Intel and have more varied testing grounds throughout the world than just the Eastern countries and the United States.

**What is the product or service you chose and why did you select that one?**

The product or service I choose for this particular project and what I desire to bring to the country of my choosing is the 5th generation of cellular phone service, or 5G. As a technology enthusiast, I chose 5G because 5G is a hot topic in the technology world as we speak. 5G will exceed bandwidth speeds from twenty times to up to 100 times faster than the current infrastructure we have today and every technology enthusiast, as well as I, are waiting anxiously for 5G to be a reality. The race has beegun to see who will be the cellular modem manufacturer king, with Intel and Qualcomm both manufacturing 5G modems, ready to put into original equipment manufacturer’s, or OEM’s, hands, such as Motorola, Samsung, Apple, LG, Huiwei, and others.

**What are some cultural concerns?**

There are some cultural concerns for the 5G adoption process. There is the fact that smartphones and wireless hotspots with the 5G technology baked in are too expensive for the average Joe, punching in and punching out, working for the “man,” as it were. 5G might not see the adoption it is hoping for right out of the gate. There is also the concern of the classic old saying “if ain’t broken, don’t fix it” sort of deal. If you think about everybody that is 30 years or older in Germany, they will probably think that way. That in turn slow down adaption yet again because until society’s phones inevitably break down over time, they will have to switch. 

However, there is one big cultural, ethical problem looming over our heads as we speak. We are already bombarded with the unquestionable “fake news” and alternative facts that one couldn’t even begin to understand it all. There is technological breakthrough that takes deep learning computing and combines, or more accurately superimposes, existing multiple images, or videos, of one face onto another multiple source images, or videos. If one compares the two images, videos, side by side, they could be indistinguishable to the naked eye. Basically, what is this is is face swapping technology. This technological breakthrough is called deepfakes, a portmanteau of the phrase “deep learning” and the word “fake.” You might of heard deepfakes before. 

More people have seen this in the face swap feature in the insanely popular app Snapchat, with their built-in augmented reality, or AR, support. However, this is more realistic than whatever Snapchat can come up with, at least for the time being because how many phone’s video processors are inside the phone. Furthermore, in the film Rouge One: A Star Wars Story, the used the same technology to replicate the late Carrie Fisher’s face onto Ingvild Delia’s (the actor that played Princess Leia in Rouge One) body. At first when I saw the movie for the first time, I was blown away, thinking I was in some kind of time machine. In all reality, it was just some impressive movie magic, with some computers with a lot of video processors. Finally, in the United States, a pretty convincing video was released by BuzzFeed in which filmmaker Jordan Peele had former President Barack Obama saying things he would never say, or at least not in public address. Of course, it was all a joke in the end but it was intended as a public service announcement on worrying possibilities that we may not get the right sources from the right people. This, all of this, is certainly scary stuff.

With 5G infrastructure in Germany, one could see how problematic this could be. Plus, how small compared the sheer power and bandwidth of 5G. In a fictional Germany, let’s say there is a meeting between two CEO’s of these multi-billion dollar fuel companies. With 5G in place, conferences are held via 3D hologram, all thanks to the power of 5G. One of the CEO’s holograms happens to become compromised, altered with a deepfake by someone else other than the CEO which it very could possibly be a terrorist organization, agreeing to deal that the other CEO and his/her board are not so sure of yet. I know this sounds something out of a terrible sci-fi movie, but this the reality where we will live in the near future. Soon, there is going to be all out war on trust with business or organizations worldwide. How do legislate for such causes, you might ask? Have no fear, as I am going to talk about that in my political concerns section.

**What are some economic concerns?**
	
As far I can tell, based on my research, there is virtually none to speak of. In fact, in Germany, we could eliminate joblessness, furthering the 38-year low of unemployment to virtually zero percent. In all reality, that doesn’t happen of course, but we could mitigate the unemployment rate significantly. If were an ideal world, things of that nature would change drastically.  

With lowering the unemployment rate, we have highly trained and highly competent because of their knowledge of the current LTE technology and the future technology of 5G. Once the new infrastructure is in place in Germany, 5G will generate revenue like never before. With technologies like indoor wireless broadband, augmented reality (the thing we discussed earlier), virtual reality (which already has become a hot topic now with vendors such as Oculus, HTC, and OSVR), asset tracking, and autonomous vehicles. To put this into perspective, 5G has the potential to bring in 12.3 trillion dollars, coming from a vast array of industries, from the software industry to the health industry. Plus, that revenue figure is nearly equivalent to the United States consumer spending in 2016, so imagine what that could do for Germany.

Having 5G having set in place in Germany, many say 5G will accelerate innovation as “many are confident in connectivity's next renaissance,” with a study coming out saying that 91 percent of respondents 5G will enable new products and services that have to be yet invented. The study’s respondents also say that 5G will stimulate innovation, and that could lead to “smarter” homes, as some homes are already “smart” (i.e. Nest thermostats), “smart” cities, and moreover, even healthier people (“smart” people). 70 percent of respondents also say they are concerned that without 5G, their country won’t as competitive as the ones with 5G, which would be the United States and Eastern countries. The creating and making from “just another network” to a robust ecosystem will be the final result of 5G technologies with those used in Germany such as advanced Wi-Fi and existing 4G LTE technology and applications, building on cloud computing to analyze data insights on who and what 5G is really good for.

**What are some political concerns?**

The Internet of Things, or abbreviated IoT, is but one of many 5G crippling repercussions. We have the power to create society to be built into the “cloud.” That would mean every device, object, surface, building and location is able to collect data and offer internet-based resources. Now, it would be cool to have a coffee shop table be a virtual phone with all these kinds of applications and tabloids right at your fingertips. But, alas, as I would think that would be insanely sweet if 5G enabled us to do that, the data collection and privacy concerns are definitely an issue, and that’s were politics come into play.

Imagine you are walking down the streets of Berlin on a sightseeing trip. In a 5G world, the pavement is tracking the speed at which you walk, the shoes you are wearing, the destination you are walking to, all of means to send you better advertisements and pass data to third parties governmental organizations and service suppliers. For example, Adidas could be tracking how many their shoes walk along this particular street, or the lifecycle of their products. Another example, Google Maps could monitor how fast you are moving in comparison to other people the same age, gender, and/or race to give you more personalized route timings to it’s users. Last example, Tinder (or any other dating app for that matter) could check if your heart rate goes up if you passed someone that you find attractive. That way, Tinder and others can make sure that their dating profile show up next when you open the app. The possibilities are endless and, to put this bluntly, I don’t think to many people would appreciate it. “Hey, this guy looks familiar. Did I pass him whilst walking today?” All this information is gathered from a slab of pavement. Take that in for a second. 5G is all it takes for this world descend into a dystopia.
	
The capitalist in me wants to get as much data as possible. However, from a political perspective, legislation needs to be put in place. Since the German government is representative democratic republic, roughly much like our government here in the United States, it shouldn’t be too difficult if enough people speak up about it. We are already having discussions about type of things already. For example, the GDPR legislation put in place the European Union. Earlier this year, GDPR brought the European Union countries a step back from the existing practices that were becoming outdated now that we live in more connected world. But in a ever-changing world of 5G, this type of legislation will become so more prevalent.

**What are some technological concerns?**

Now that you have read about 5G and what things that make it so great, there is some inevitable technological concerns I have to put out there because there are indeed some concerns to the cellular carriers. Throughput and quality of service. 

To provide enough bandwidth to everyone in Germany, there has to be some kind of backhaul. Backhauls are what is needed to fuel the great connection that we have with 4G LTE. Instead of keeping all the bandwidth to yourself, you need to share the bandwidth with others. With every device (and slab of pavement) connecting to a particular 5G radio at once, your connectivity will decrease. Backhauls fix that issue, giving you a fast and reliable connection. 

Quality of service, or abbreviated QoS, is a bandwidth cap on your 4G LTE connection. German cellular carriers like Vodaphone, E-Plus, and O2 are most likely going to cap your 5G connection as well. With the quality of service in place among various carriers, Germans may not enough bandwidth to change the way we think, innovate, or make slabs of pavement that track our every move. Thinking that the bandwidth is sufficient enough to satisfy our devices is not going to cut it if cellular carriers throw the hammer down on how bandwidth you can obtain.

**Is this a feasible risk?**

By my understanding of 5G and what it can bring us, yes, I think the risk is indeed feasible and I think Germany should go ahead with the 3GPP with placing this new 5G infrastructure. Whenever I look a company releasing a new product, one of the things I look for is innovation. The 5G standard really shines with it’s blazing fast bandwidth and the benefits it will bring to any economy, in this case the German economy. I think there are more pros than cons in bring 5G into Germany because there is German government who can put forth legislation if things start to get out of hand, the economy will boom, bringing unemployment rate to a staggering low, and technological concerns are small compared to how much productivity 5G will bring Germany.
