As 4G networks begin to roll themselves out across the globe, London Mayor Boris Johnson says that his city is already looking at a 5G network.
Silicon Valley may have its startups, Berlin may have its economy but London? England’s capital city has Big Ben, the Queen and it knows how to make a mighty good cuppa (that’s a cup of tea to non-Brits). It also has a long and illustrious history of being a bastion for technology. It’s a little known fact that a Brit from London named Sir Tim Berners-Lee was one of the key founders of the Internet, helping to both establish its foundations and bring it to where it is today and despite the city having poor infrastructure across congested roads and Victorian-era plumbing, the Internet is something that London does ok with but according to Mayor Boris Johnson his city can not only do better but it can also have a 5G network in place by 2020.
5G, to be frank, is a dream that’s only just falling into place. Many of the days smartphones are only just allowing for 4G and even then 4G phones are usually at the higher end of the smartphone spectrum and will cost you an arm and a leg to purchase, so needless to say 4G hasn’t fully caught on yet. Furthermore, across the UK 4G hotspots are only found in major cities (London being one of them) so there’s not yet the incentive for smartphones, especially those sold in England, to include 5G chips. They are being worked on though, with Japanese carrier Docomo previously announcing its own plans to set up a 5G network although they explained that it wouldn’t be possible until 2020.
So what’s the thinking behind Boris’ lofty expectations for his city? His previous promise that London would be one giant Wi-Fi hotspot by 2012 didn’t really come to fruition so there’s obviously cause for concern here. Except this time around his hopes might come true as in an effort to boost the city’s infrastructure, Internet could be taken seriously and therefore implemented to keep things running smoothly (and speedily) for commuters and casual pedestrians alike. However, it’s unlikely that a 5G network would be considered more important than London’s existing transport issues or the upgrades to its energy and water systems that have been proposed so I suppose we’ll have to wait until 202 to see how Boris’ plans pan out.
Source: The Telegraph
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