Providers may need five times more antennas for 5g than for 4g. That is what KT, the South Korean provider that built a test network for the Olympic Games two months ago
Provider KT has set up a test network and while for 4g that area requires 46 antennas, KT used 5g 212, reports RCR Wireless . These antennas were needed because 5g uses higher frequencies to offer more bandwidth. KT uses 28GHz and 3.5GHz for its 5g network, where providers for 4g use 0.8GHz and 1.8GHz, for example. The waves at higher frequencies can carry much more data, but have less range and penetrate less well into buildings. Building many antennas entails high costs, according to CEO Won-Yeol Lee of KT. “If we can not find the right applications, providers may go bankrupt,” he answered questions during 5G New Horizons, a conference about the next generation of mobile networks. Providers in the Benelux are therefore, together with business customers, fully engaged in finding applications. This happened with earlier generations of networks, such as 4g and 3g, not or much less. KT also found out during the test that coverage in buildings due to the high frequencies is even more difficult than expected. Also lowering the latency becomes a challenge; servers that serve content must be physically close to the user. KT achieved a round trip of 7-8ms on the test network. The Olympic Games functioned as a test location for the 5g network. KT drove around with self-driving vehicles that had a 5g connection. Users could also view real-time streams in 360 degrees via 5g in such vehicles. In addition, users could use 5g on monitors to select camera positions with low latency during sports competitions.
