While those of us stateside are enjoying the blazing fast 4G LTE speeds offered to us by certain carriers, those living in the UK are not as fortunate as carriers have yet to roll out 4G LTE networks. While that is currently underway, in the meantime, a new research center has been created which will be taking a look at 5G networks. Dubbed the 5G Centre, this will be a partnership between the University of Surrey and mobile companies, such as Huawei, Samsung, Telefonica Europe and Fujitsu Laboratories Europe. So what’s the rush with 5G networks, especially since 4G LTE has yet to be widely adopted around the world, let alone in the UK?
According to Professor Rahim Tafazolli, head of the University of Surrey’s Centre for Communication Systems Research, “The growth in the number of new applications running on the networks is accelerating, as ever more mobile devices become the preferred route for internet access […] Such unprecedented data traffic growth requires the urgent introduction of new 5G advanced technologies that maximise the use of the limited available radio spectrum.” He also added that by starting on 5G research now, this will hopefully help the UK avoid being behind in technology like they did with 4G.
However since 5G has yet to be defined by the International Telecommunications Union, it is unclear as to what sort of work and research will be conducted by the 5G Centre. In any case it will be interesting to see what they will come up with although we do not expect to see results any time soon.
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