The introduction of the 5G mobile network is very much on its way for many as it has already been introduced for some – most mobile devices that have been released within the past year may already be compatible, but everything released from now onwards definitely will be – the changes that 5G bring will provide a whole host of opportunities, streaming content is becoming increasingly popular as it is slowly becoming the primary way that many consume their content, with increasing speeds and capacity this may only continue, but an area that may see the biggest benefit could be found within gaming.
One of the bigger changes being mentioned for 5G is the increase in speed – current networking capabilities within 4G have a theoretical maximum speed of 100Mbps, for context this would be downloading a two-hour movie in around six to ten minutes, but the upload speed also counts as 4G upload speeds sit around 8Mbps to 50Mbps which is a big limiting factor in how data can be sent which is a big part in how many apps are used – although this speed isn’t bad, comparable to many home networks, there is plenty of room for improvement – and 5G offers that in both aspects.
(Image from shadow.tech)
The theoretical maximum speed for 5G connections is 100Gbps – one-hundred times faster than that of 4G, using the same movie example, the two-hour movie would take just three to five seconds to download. The upload speed here is what matters, however, as the upload speed theoretically can match that of the download speed at 100Gbps which provides a number of new opportunities within mobile gaming – an area gaining traction in recent years has seen efforts toward developing AR – augmented reality, and VR – virtual reality within mobile games – AR has been used extremely successfully with the Pokémon GO title that took the world by storm a few years ago, most recently mobile casinos and betting sites not on gamstop are available for growth in this market as many are making steps toward making this a core part of upcoming releases.
This change in both download and upload speed provides what may be a better connection than many of us have through our home connections – as many of us turn toward our mobile devices as our primary source of entertainment, this change in connectivity opens up a whole number of possibilities – and it is expected that over 2.7 billion users will be gaming primarily on their mobile devices by 2021, and as the spread of a better connection continues in emerging markets the growth has the possibility to accelerate. 51% of all gaming is done on our mobile devices too, there’s a huge opportunity for gaming to accelerate in growth as the popularity has taken hold and markets such as esports move into popular culture, in some cases even replacing traditional sports as it leads the way in viewership and interest – keep an eye on this space as 5G emerges, big changes are expected to arrive fast.
