Tomorrow Britain will decide whether to allow Huawei a role in building its 5G network. A quick thread on why this matters. Beginning with the technology itself. Contrary to what you might have heard, 5G isn't just about downloading movies and music faster onto your smartphone...
Yes, 5G will allow faster transfer speeds, but the really revolutionary thing about the network isn't about speed but RELIABILITY. These days if you want to ensure mission critical transmissions of data are always successful, you are far better-off using ethernet and fixed wires
Doubtless you've experienced the limitations of existing mobile networks (3G, 4G etc) when you've tried to call your friends on the way out of a football match or stadium concert. Too many people using the network at once and you can lose connectivity altogether
5G changes this completely, using "network slicing" to enable you to have a connection that is pretty much as reliable as an ethernet connection. Again, don't assume this is all just about smartphones. It's far more interesting when you start putting 5G chips in other stuff
If your laptop, or even desktop, has a 5G chip you no longer have to be worried about running out of storage space. Since the connection is so reliable and you're constantly connected to the cloud you just add more storage space on dropbox or onedrive or whatever.
If your car has a 5G connection it can be constantly communicating with other cars and even pedestrians (Cellular vehicle-to-everything or C-V2X), monitoring traffic and spotting accidents before the driver does. It could help make self-driving cars a genuine reality
It could revolutionise industry: if every part of your machinery has 5G and is constantly feeding back info then you can manage production and create a genuine smart factory. If you put 5G into your power network you could use AI to self-heal the grid when there's a power cut
You see: smartphones are actually the least interesting thing abt 5G. The revolutionary thing is that pretty much everything else - from your fridge to your car to a power station - can suddenly become connected to the cloud. EVERYTHING is connected. That's the big deal abt 5G
That's why the Huawei decision matters. Because 5G isn't just the network which will be used to transfer sensitive information from one phone to another. It's the infrastructure that could underpin our power network - and ensure cars stay in lane and don't crash into each other
On the one hand, Huawei might be sincere that it will never undermine the network or allow the Chinese state to use it to spy, or for that matter as a weapon (if you have a backdoor to all self-driving car data then you could theoretically use it to turn those cars into weapons)
Yet the stakes here are higher than most people realise - because they assume blithely that this is just about downloading movies faster. It's about the technology infrastructure which will underpin the entire economy in decades to come. Which is why this is no easy decision...
