How revolutionary is 5G? Interview with Danny Simpson

Blog by pro-manchester communications manager, Mel Hill

“5G will be the most important digital invention since the launch of the internet,” says Danny Simpson, CEO of MID Communications.

A pretty bold statement, I’m sure you’ll agree? I caught up with Danny to delve a little deeper into just why 5G excites him so much and why it’s going to be a catalyst in the fourth revolution; the Digital Revolution.

MH: What is 5G?

DS: 5G is advanced connectivity that will give everybody faster speeds, which is essentially is what consumers want. The opportunities it’s going to create that people don’t realise yet are insane.

On some of our first testing, 5G has a download speed of 296mbps. When you compare this to some top home broadband fibre lines, which can get up to 150mbps, but normal broadband speeds of about 20 -30MB you start to realise just how incredible these speeds are on a mobile device.

MH: How will these increased speeds make a difference?

DS: The big thing with 5G is the latency. Latency is essentially speed of communication between to points or units, and 5G is about to make this communication so much faster. The brain communicates on average around 0.8ms and 5G will communicate about 0.3ms. That is what will revolutionise technology most this mixed with the increased connectivity of service.

With this speed, autonomous vehicles and devices alike will be communicating with their information dispensers quicker than your brain can and will make decisions to react much faster.  In Summary this will make service 40 times more responsive, 10 times faster, 20% more power efficient than 4G Networks.

Watch this video to see the difference between 4G and 5G and to showcase latency better

MH: Are there any sectors that will see a large improvement because of 5G?

DS: It’s hard to predict which sectors will benefit from it the most at this early stage. It all comes down to the early adopters. In my opinion, 5G is going to be huge for healthcare, transport, councils, along with retail and commerce.

Telehealth is going to make vast improvements – allowing patients to video call their doctor with no delay whatsoever. We’re already hearing incredible stories about surgeons using video and robotics and automation to perform surgeries from entirely different countries. It’s a real game-changer and something we should really get excited about.  We have also just launched a trail of 5G ambulances, to give paramedics a live reporting and communication platform to support them at the scene’s.

MH: Should businesses be changing now and adopt this technology early?

DS: We’re on a bit of a hyper-train right now, 5G is only just starting to build momentum and pull out of the station. If you’re into being an early adopter and know what you’re doing, then I would say go for it. If you’re a general business, are you going to reap the full benefits of 5G right now? I would say no, as it will take a while to build this, O2 are investing £2M per day in network and infrastructure, and we are working hard with our parters as we build our network out, but if speed, communication and automation is what drives your business, then I would say it’s time to get 5G before you fall behind your competitors.  Don’t adopt technology for the sake of adopting it but do it because it’s right for your business or right for you as a person.

MH: Why do you believe 5G will have more of an impact than the invention of the internet?

DS: I think 5G will be a game-changer for the digital revolution we are in the midst of. It presents us with an opportunity to have constant connectivity. Our devices are now our life’s remote control, we need them constantly. Mobile devices are the oxygen to how we operate as humans and businesses in digital world. Without 5G there are signal and speed challenges – take those problems away and the opportunities are unlimited.

MID Communications are kindly sponsoring our upcoming Trailblazing Tech Conference on Friday 20th March.

We’re delighted to have Danny and his team on board and are looking forward to them expanding even further on this and showcasing what they’re championing as a business right now.

For more information head to www.pro-manctechconference.com