With sound policies, governments can enhance the conditions necessary to realize 5G's potential. © Shutterstock
The rise of 5G has sparked excitement, confusion, and a fair share of myths. From wondering what the extra "G" will do to your internet speed to concerns about its cost, reliability, and power, many people are unsure of what 5G truly offers. Will it be faster? Uninterrupted? More expensive? What are the use cases, especially in developing countries? While 5G brings notable improvements, there are also common misconceptions surrounding its promises and potential risks.
In this blog, we’ll debunk some of these myths and draw on insights from the report “The Path to 5G in the Developing World: Planning Ahead for a Smooth Transition,” to explore how this new technology can support developing countries.
Let’s take a closer look at a few:
1. 5G will instantly provide limitless speed and flawless coverage.
In reality, the rollout of 5G is happening gradually, and its performance depends on where you are, the network setup, and other factors. While 5G is already much faster and more reliable than 4G in many places, it’s not yet as fast as it could potentially be everywhere. Economic considerations also come into play, especially on the tradeoff between speed and coverage. In rural areas, for example, it might not make sense to build the high-frequency networks that 5G is known for right now because they cover smaller areas. Instead, operators often rely on lower frequency networks, which can carry signals across longer distances but provide relatively lower speeds.
2. 5G will replace 4G completely.
In fact, 4G and 5G are expected to coexist and complement each other for some time. Just like how 2G and 3G networks are still the main ways of accessing mobile connectivity for over half of those covered by mobile networks in low-income countries, the new technology won’t instantly make everything else obsolete. As older networks like 2G and 3G are phased out to free up mobile spectrum, many places will turn to 4G because it’s more cost-effective, provides wider geographic coverage, and supports the apps and services people rely on.
3. 5G only benefits urban users in rich countries.
As with the previous generations of mobile technologies, making the economics work for 5G is challenging, particularly in developing countries, because building networks is expensive. Because there may initially be limited demand for these networks, deploying 5G can be particularly hard in the early years of rollout and in rural areas. In practice, this means that 5G launches in low- and middle-income countries have focused on a few urban areas. Over time, the prices for equipment and 5G-capable smartphones should come down. Policymakers can help by reducing spectrum fees, finding smarter ways to share spectrum, and enabling upgrades to fiber networks that are critical to backhaul much larger data volumes enabled by 5G (for example, by promoting infrastructure sharing with energy or transport networks).
4. 5G is harmful to the climate.
5G networks, like all mobile networks, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions through building and maintaining physical infrastructure, like base stations and antennas, and through energy use for data transmission. The good news is that advances in infrastructure and energy savings technology have made 5G up to 90% more energy efficient per unit of traffic than older networks. Yet, higher speeds and lower latency are likely to increase people’s overall data consumption, potentially doubling or tripling it compared to 4G. Therefore, the jury is still out on the overall impact of 5G on emissions, which will depend on energy sources for network infrastructure, among other things.
The research featured in this blog was supported by the Digital Development Partnership, which aims to advance digital transformation in low and middle-income countries by building strong digital foundations and accelerators, facilitating use digital cases for the digital economy to thrive.
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