Information technology experts on Tuesday weighed in on the pros and cons of 5G, and its development in Taiwan’s market, after three major local telecoms unveiled their 5G data packages this week.
Although 5G networks are available, “a “killer” application that makes the technology indispensable for users is lacking, so it is likely that people would take a bit longer before making the switch from 4G, SayDigi Tech editor-in-chief Chuang Ying-chun (莊英群) said.
A boom of 5G applications is not expected to emerge until the second half of next year, Chuang said, adding that he estimated the technology would be most widely used for videoconferencing first, before proving of benefit to electric vehicles and self-driving systems, or smart transport and smart cities.
Photo: CNA
Although 5G networks have a connection speed at least 10 times faster than 4G, their signals travel shorter distances and have more trouble penetrating obstacles, such as walls, meaning there is going to be a greater demand for 5G base stations, at least twice as many as those of 4G, he said.
For example, if 4G networks require one base station within a 5km radius, 5G networks would need three to five to achieve the same transmission level, he added.
The monthly fee for a 5G mobile package with unlimited Internet access would need to be priced at NT$1,399 at a minimum for providers to make ends meet, he said.
A lower price would mean that the maximum connection speed would necessarily drop once users have reached a certain threshold of data usage in a month.
However, providers might have to follow suit if one of them offers discounts for unlimited Internet usage, Chuang added.
Taiwan’s 4G networks are mature, with a high coverage rate of base stations across the nation, allowing telecoms to use some of them as stations for both 4G and 5G signals, said Cheng Chia-yi (鄭嘉逸), a project manager at the Science and Technology Law Institute, which belongs to the Taipei-based Institute for Information Industry.
Building 5G stations by “upgrading” existing 4G ones is not only convenient, the 5G connectivity would also be more stable, he said.
As Taiwan has more telecoms than other comparable nations, fierce market competition, such as in selling prices, or coverage rate, would create a healthy environment for 5G development, he said.
However, “although it took only two to three years for 4G networks to cover 80 percent of the nation’s population after 4G was launched, 5G networks would probably only cover 50 percent in the same period, due to ‘varied signal nature,’” he said.
The limited number of smartphone models that support 5G poses another challenge, as there are only 30 foreign brand models and five local brand models, most of which are the most expensive in the brands’ lineups, he added.
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