Tech Thursday- The G Evolution

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When you think of the evolution of networks, picture the classic image of a line of apes, each one a little more human-like until the fully modern person at the front of the line. 5G networks are so sophisticated you basically have to imagine another human in front of the modern looking person, and this guy is solving a Rubik’s cube while playing Chopin on the piano with his toes.

Around 2000, 2G (second generation) was introduced, but was only a slight improvement upon dial-up internet. For the Gen-Z-ers reading this, dial-up was incredibly slow and required the device to actually be plugged into the wall. There were definitely no location services, which is just as well because users’ location was pretty simple: at home. People had to listen to a series of beeps until the right one rang out, indicating that they were finally connected at a speed of 58.6 Kbps. That may just sound like a number, so to put it in perspective, the difference between 58.6 Kbps and 5G is like the difference between water coming through a straw and the Mississippi river in the Springtime. Now that’s evolution

3G to 4G

Smartphones were introduced in 2006, and no, for all you Apple Zombies, it was not an IPhone. That would come about a year later. At that time people began to realize that a smartphone could do several amazing things, like connecting to the internet, but 2G was not up to the task of meeting the full scope of consumer demands. 3G was soon introduced to try to fill this gap in performance. Still very slow by today’s standards, 3G was over 30 times faster than 2G. At this point, smartphones started to become smart. At this speed, you could provide voice, email, web browsing, and location services that weren’t practical before. 3G is where the, I NEEEED a new phone every year syndrome began. By 2017, 4G LTE (Long-Turm Evolution) Advanced emerged, which, along with other significant advances in services, justified the constant NEED to have a new phone. These services included streaming, video, high-quality audio image sharing, and live video chat.