5G Technology: Opportunities And Challenges -By Bello Olakeu Abdussalam

Lies at the heart of 5G technology are opportunities which will transform the people, the economy and the society, accompanying these opportunities as expected are challenges which are needed to be overcome to maximize the rewarding impacts of the 5G technology. Our ability to strike balance between the opportunities and challenges will determine whether the 5G technology is a global breakthrough or somehow a global catastrophe.

The use of 5G-enabled networks industries will significantly transform the world economic grow. It has been reported to result in generating 22.3 million jobs and increasing the global economic value to $ 13.2 trillion by 2035. For instance, there will be tremendous economic growth in gaming industries, eSports according to the World Economic Forum has a captive global audience of more than 300 million and revenues of over $1billion. As it’s known that for players the most crucial things to them are stable connections and faster speeds. These are both provided by the 5G technology. Therefore, enhancement of connections and speeds will invariably increase the revenue generated by the gaming industries.

Also, in security institutions, the enhanced connectivity, low latency and upgraded speed of the 5G technology will improve turnaround time of searching for criminals and improve security networks and decrease insecurity issues which is one of the major drawbacks for economic development because no one will invest in an unsafe atmosphere. The high start-up and operational cost is one of the challenges that is needed to get over especially for the industries in developing countries. Also, security and privacy safety of the technology isn’t effective compared to the previous 4G technology because its signals cannot penetrate walls subsequently 5G networks require smaller antennas and base stations that are placed indoors and outdoors consequently mobile networks can pinpoint the location of the users and this will pose threats to the users.

The 5G technology is key in achieving some of the sustainable development goals through enhancing infrastructure, enabling sustainable cities and communities, promoting and decent work. The installation of 5G-powered electricity and transportation systems will greatly reduce the amount carbon emissions and consequently avert the adverse effects associated with carbon emissions. Also, this technology will enhance earlier detection of natural disasters such as earthquake, tsunami etc. And faster deployment of emergency services to the victims. This will help in ensuring cities and human settlements are safe, resilient and sustainable. Though, this might be difficult to achieve in rural areas due to misinformation and controversy surrounding the technology as well as its availability and coverage.

During the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, there were various controversies that linked the emergence of COVID-19 to 5G and this resulted in serious attacks on telecommunication masts in countries like Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom. These are due to the believe that the 5G technology weakens immune system and makes one more vulnerable to COVID-19 and it’s a predisposing factor to cancer.

With enhanced connectivity and reduced latency of 5G, people will be transformed tremendously as it will help billions of devices to get connected and share data in real time, this will consequently increase access to information that are needed in our day-to-day life which previously would have taken a longer time to get. In healthcare settings for instance, the use of 5G internet connections will enhance accessibility of information that are required in screening, diagnosis and management of patients. It will also enable the healthcare provider to consult each other electronically to have life-saving discussions which will help in the management of patients. The need for faster internet connections are specifically more important in the cases of accident and emergency medicine. All these will consequently increase the accuracy of diagnosis and appropriation of treatment gotten by the patients. Despite all these life-changing opportunities that will be provided by 5G technology, the fact that it’s incompatible with the exiting devices will pose significant problems to the users as it’s required of people to get new devices which will be compatible with the technology.

In conclusion, the 5G technology is one of the greatest technological advancement in telecommunication industries in recent times. With it, the world will immensely derive range of opportunities and this technology is not without various challenges.