5G IS COMING AND THE WORLD OF MEDIA WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN

The last decade has seen seismic developments in telecommunications and the pace of change is only accelerating. Just think, it was only six years back in 2013 that New Zealand ushered in the 4G era. At the time, Vodafone told consumers that the 4G network was “a major milestone for New Zealand”.

Well, if you thought that was groundbreaking, 2019 promises to be a barrel of monkeys by comparison, as 5G networks roll out all over the world. We’ll soon see data downloaded at rates that make our current 4G networks seem positively sloth-like. And it wasn’t long ago that 4G did the same thing to the now-virtually prehistoric 3G networks.

Here’s a practical example of what I’m talking. At 3G speeds it would have taken nearly 24 hours, or the time it takes to fly from Auckland to London. The advent of 4G networks reduced this download time to barely five minutes. But with 5G networks up and running, you’ll be able to download the film in about the time it takes to reach out and flick a lightswitch.