How the 5G network will affect AI. The short and no buzzword version

I hear a lot about how the 5G mobile network technology will change the world and especially be a big enabler for applied AI. But is that really true? Will 5G be an AI gamechanger? 

The short answer is no. 5G is nice. It's a convenient technology that will be nice for AI but in no way a big deal. The best comparison I can make is that 5G is like new roads. Asking people behind AI solutions if 5G is a gamechanger is like asking a shopkeeper the same about new roads. And that being in a location with already decent roads. The shopkeeper would probably answer something along the lines of: "It'll be nice. It'll be a little easier for my suppliers to bring goods and a little easier for my customers to reach me. And that might be especially for shops in the city, where the new roads are prioritized due to being more used. But it won't be something that can immediately be seen on my stores profits.". 

So what does that mean? It means that better infrastructure is always nice, but if it's already decent like 4G, it’s not a huge difference. 5G is an incremental improvement to the infrastructure surrounding AI. As the infrastructure is just one of many parameters that affects AI solutions and grocery stores alike, it’s nice but no biggie. 

How 5g works

So why is it just an incremental improvement? Isn't 5G ground breaking technology ? 

Well no. 5G is like 4G radio waves transmitting data. 5G radio waves are just different from 4G waves by being shorter wavelength that can carry way more data as a result. And shorter wavelengths are not groundbreaking. We have actually been able to make short waves for a very long time. 

So why haven't we done this before? Well there’s a lot of practical problems with shorter wavelengths. They reach a shorter distance and they have trouble going through walls and other material. To counter that problem you have to put more towers closer together. More towers means more costs associated with setting up and maintaining the towers. Furthermore having towers closer together brings another problem. Radio waves interfering and disturbing each other and as a result making the data transfer unstable. 

So why now?

Finally 5G is here. And that's for two reasons. I might sound like I’ve been putting 5G down as an unimpressive technology that deserves no credit. But 5G is impressive. Just not on the immediate effect on society. 5G is impressive like building a big bridge. When you build a big bridge you have to go through way more trouble figuring out how massive concrete can hold up in the conditions it’s given. That’s impressive engineering compared to a small bridge.

And that is one of the reasons we are getting 5G now. Some really impressive engineering have gone into getting around the problems with shorter wavelengths. Making the short waves reach enough ground to make 5G practically viable and making it not interfere too much is really impressive.

The other reason we get 5G now is simply that we are so many people using so much mobile network that we can share the costs of all those mobile network towers and make a good business case. 

That’s it plain and simply. 5G is nice and an improvement but it’s no crazy invention that will change the world tomorrow.