Last month we delv ed into the world of 5G looking at the financial driv ers behind setting up this global network. This month Supernal looks at 5G frequencies used and how those frequencies can impact all liv es on the planet. There is a massiv e amount of information av ailable online. We are trying to get a broad cross balance of this information and prov iding links to follow up, allowing people to make their mind up. Information from the Defense Innov ation Board states that peak data rates are driv en by the amount of spectrum av ailable. In 4G, it is stated that fiv e 20 MHz channels can be bonded. In 5G, up to fiv e 100 MHz channels can be bonded, enabling speeds 20x faster than 4G. Another key issue is the location on the electromagnetic spectrum. The world commonly uses below 6 GHz (low-mid band spectrum) called sub-6 in the 3-4 GHz bands.
The US civ il and commercercial sectors are unable to use sub-6 as this is allocated to the US gov ernment and military. This sector must use another band or wait 10 years for spectrum reallocation. In addition, there are military v ulnerabilities with sharing spectrum. Hence, the US, South Korea and Japan are focused on the 24-300 GHz (high-band spectrum) called mmWav e, as the core domestic 5G approach. The tension around this, as mentioned last month, is the fear of not being the first mov er in 5G. The challenge for the US is to conv ert the world to mmWav e when the majority are on sub-6. Sub-6 spectrum prov ides broad area network cov erage with low risk of interruption, longer wav e length, fewer EMF towers elev ated abov e people. 5G mmWav e is time and cost intensiv e to prov ide more cov erage and requires massiv e infrastructure. US trials used 425 MHz-28 GHz of spectrum compared to the sub-6 GHz band. Disruption to connectiv ity for mmWav e includes the human body, v ehicle and foliage. The equipment is mounted on utility poles and, in the trial of 72,735 macrocell towers and
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rooftops, which cov ered only 11.6 per cent of US population at cell edge speeds of 100 Mbps with 3.9 per cent cov erage at 1 Gbps range. For sub-6 same tower sites cov ered 57.4 per cent at 100 Mbps, 21.2 per cent at 1 Gbps. The cost calculates 13 million pole mounted base stations at $400 billion to deliv er 100 Mbps at 28 GHz to 72 per cent of the population.
Other commentators indicate that the US lost the trade war and the health effects are ignored as a result of the remov a of consumer protections. Refer to https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v =W2EyQp7GP68 The public interest is a critical concern that seems to be not taken v ery seriously by telcos and other manufacturers, ev en gov ernments. There’s a lot of noise saying ‘nothing to see here’, howev er there’s a genuine and growing concern about a cov er-up that will cost liv es. Think smoking cigarettes, asbestos, MDF and more. Numerous papers are reporting on tests carried out on rats and with other equipment highlighting some genuine health concerns that appear to be
“The challenge for the US is to convert the world to mmWave when the majority are on sub-6.”
