You may have heard about 5G's Internet-of-Things potential yourself in many gauzy
statements such as "5G will make every industry and every part of our lives better", but
as with 5G in the smartpgone and home-broadband contexts, the ripple effects alluded
to in statements are potentially huge-and they will take years to land on our shores. The
long-term map for 5G loT promises to support a density of devices far beyond what
current-generation LTEcan deliver-up to a million "things" per square kilometer, versus
almost 61,000 under today's 4G. That density will open up possibilities that today would
require a horrendous amount of wired connectivity. For example, precision-controlled
factories could take advantage of the space in the airwaves to implement extremely
granular monitoring, and 5G loT promises to do that job for less. "You can put tons of
environmental sensors everywhere," said Recon Analytics founder Roger Entner. "You can
put a tag on every piece of equipment." Millimeter-wave 5G runs on bands of frequencies
starting at 24GHz, far above the frequencies employed for LTE. Low-band 5G on the same
frequencies today used for 4G doesn't allow for a massive speed boost but should at least
cover far more ground, while mid-band 5G should offer a good mix speed and coverage.