5G releases emotions. According to one, it is the egg of Columbus, the other is afraid that it will make him sick. Time to list all the sense and nonsense about 5G.

Major internet providers are already advertising it.  However, there is also opposition. The mildest opponents think we won’t need it, but the fiercest resistance comes from those who fear the introduction of 5G is planned with the Covid-19 outbreak. California professor Earl McCune, who himself works in Silicon Valley in California and as a professor specialized in sustainable, wireless, communication systems at TU Delft, to let him assess the different views on 5G.

5G is said to be carcinogenic and disease-causing
“It is a technology that has nothing to do with the biology of our body. All equipment will always influence our functioning at any level. But to make it very clear: 5G is not a living organism that can attack other organisms, such as human ones. It is a technique. In my view, that you can get cancer or other diseases from 5G is really nonsense. ”

5G is related to the corona outbreak
“The development of 5G has been going on for a while, just as we have worked on the development from 1G to 4G for a long time. To streamline the implementation of 5G with the outbreak of an infectious disease is impossible, even if in an unlikely event it would have been desirable. It may well be that now, more than ever, we are dependent on fast connections and that the call for 5G may be more urgent. So not complete nonsense. ”

“98% TO 99% OF 4G’S TECHNOLOGY IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS 5G’S”

5G is a completely new technology
“Another big misunderstanding. 98% to 99% of 5G’s technology is exactly the same as 4G’s. That is a technology that we have been working with for a while and that we trust. Characteristic is the use of the millimeter-wavelength, which is what is different about 5G. That way your phone can communicate directly and specifically with another phone. With 4G, your phone actually communicates with everything and everyone around it, within a radius of 2 to 3 km2. That is a waste of all that energy. All our 4G phones are heating up the grass, you name it. That is why it is slower than 5G. ”

5G further jeopardizes our privacy
“Nobody can be so naive? I thought this was now generally known. Our emails are really just publications. Officially it is said that they are not public, but “ discoverable ”. Right. Everything you send is of course stored somewhere and retrievable. Then you might have to take a pre-paid phone. And then pay them in cash. That might be the only way to communicate in a somewhat untraceable digital way. We lost our freedom 10 to 15 years ago. And anyone who uses apps like WhatsApp, Google, and Facebook, hopefully, knows that. Get over it, I would say. That really has nothing to do with 4G or 5G. In fact, the added component to 5G, the millimeter wavelength, has proven to be safe to use in sensitive areas of politics and for military purposes, precisely because of that targeted communication between mobile phones instead of a wide radius. 

5G is more efficient than 4G
“That depends on what you mean by efficient. It is faster and more focused. You need much, much less energy with 5G. In that sense, it is therefore very efficient. There is only one drawback and that is also a big drawback. There is a hefty price tag. The costs of having to connect our entire mobile network to it are enormous. Providers will try to do that, but without passing those costs on to someone, there is no business model possible. It cannot be profitable. Who will pay the costs? Are the subscriptions getting more expensive? I want 5G, but I don’t feel like paying a lot of money for it. And the vast majority of people don’t. That is why we need new technology, with which we do have the advantages of targeted, fast, and energy-efficient communication, without the economic disadvantages. That’s possible, we have the physical principles in house and with those principles, we can develop and build technology. We focus on that at TU Delft, but I also do that here in Silicon Valley in my own company. I expect that we can come up with an economical 5G variant within a few years. ”

“I SEE 6G BEING DEVELOPED WITHIN TEN YEARS”

5G is not a real keeper
“I don’t see how any G will ever be like the G’s have never been. So indeed, people will want to improve 5G, if only because it is indeed not cost-efficient. Those improvements are not going to be sold as 5G. That has to be another denominator, of course, one that cannot be associated with what we see as the disadvantages of 5G. So that automatically becomes 6G and yes, I see it being developed within 10 years. In fact, in 15 years we will be walking with a mobile phone that works on solar energy. That technology is now also available, but because 4G is so little focused and therefore requires a lot of energy, you would walk around with a meter of solar panels on your mobile. Not really practical.

No more hassle with chargers, put your phone in the windowsill every now and then and stay online everywhere cheap, super fast and safe. We look forward to it, but for the time being, we are careful with our chargers while we carefully take the first steps with 5G.