The evolution of communication has been extremely rapid. From 1G in the 1980s to 4G that emerged around 2010, and now to the booming 5G, we will have witnessed five generations of changes in just three or four decades. We have witnessed many milestones. The transformation and innovation in the mobile industry often drive disruptive innovations in social life.

The three major characteristics of 5G networks are extremely high speed, extremely large capacity, and extremely low latency. I believe many people have been looking forward to the arrival of the 5G era, which seems like a dream-like huge transformation.

Quietly, the evolution of communication has gone through several generations of development.

1G marked the beginning of personal mobile communication in the 1980s, using analog signals. The legendary "big brother" mobile phones emerged during this period. However, it could only be used for general voice transmission, with unstable signals and incomplete coverage.

In the 1990s, 2G allowed users to transmit data such as text messages, enabling digital communication. The main theme was the competition between GSM in Europe and CDMA in the United States. It was also the period when China followed the development of communication, and text messages emerged during this time.

At the beginning of the 21st century, communication technology entered the 3G era. This was the beginning of smartphones. In the 3G era, Europe and the United States continued to compete, and China also began to gradually participate in standard setting.

In 2010, the 4G era arrived, which meant a full entry into the mobile Internet era, achieving the connection between people. From having no presence in 1G, following in 2G, making breakthroughs in 3G, to achieving "parallel running" in 4G. Thanks to China's huge market scale, the three major operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, vigorously promoted the construction and built the world's largest 4G network.

Now, the 5G physical layer coding battle is even called a once-in-20-year major showdown in the telecommunications industry. Currently, the 5G standard has defined three major scenarios: eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC. Among them, eMBB corresponds to large-volume mobile broadband services such as 3D/ultra-high-definition video, mMTC corresponds to large-scale Internet of Things services, and URLLC corresponds to services that require low latency and high-reliability connections, such as autonomous driving and industrial automation. Among these, video is the most competitive area.

Wang Zhiqin, the leader of China's 5G Promotion Group, revealed that currently, in terms of the proportion of 5G standard-setting manuscripts, China accounts for more than 30%, higher than that of the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Europe. "This gives China an advantage in key seat voting rights and other aspects."

The 5G pilot in Jiangsu has been launched, and various aspects of people's livelihood are being connected.

Currently, relevant departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission have approved the three major operators, China Unicom, China Telecom, and China Mobile, to conduct pilot projects in some cities. Among them, Nanjing and Suzhou have been included in the first batch of national 5G pilot cities by two operators. They will complete the large-scale trial and trial commercial deployment of the 5G pre-commercial network this year and next year, aiming to achieve the official commercialization of 5G in 2020.

Wang Jieshun from the Network Planning and Management Department of China Mobile Suzhou Branch said that as a technical leader of the Suzhou pilot project, his task this year is to complete the construction and field testing of 100 5G base stations, laying the foundation for China Mobile's 5G network pre-commercialization in Suzhou in 2019.

Many of the 5G pilots and applications in Jiangsu are related to people's livelihood. Zheng Kang, an expert from the Planning and Technology Department of Jiangsu Mobile, said that Jiangsu Mobile has cooperated with Wuxi hospitals to seize the golden rescue period with the help of 5G technology. In addition, in the fields of entertainment and sports, 5G has also been tried. Si Yaxiong, a staff member of Nanjing Mobile, said that the Nanjing Youth Olympic Sports Park has used 5G experimental base stations to enable real-time transmission of sports events.

"4G changes life, and 5G changes society. The future 5G is the era of artificial intelligence." Zheng Kang said. As we enter the era of artificial intelligence, the intelligence of objects brings new communication needs between people and objects, and between objects and objects. The existing network cannot support the number of network connections required for applications in the era of artificial intelligence. "However, one of the biggest features of 5G is 'large connection', which is sufficient to support more connections and better promote the development of artificial intelligence."

Relevant personnel from Jiangsu Telecom believe that the 5G experimental network in Suzhou will explore vertical applications in three aspects: the Internet of Vehicles, smart cities, and industrial intelligent manufacturing. "Compared with the current 4G, 5G is'stronger and higher'. 5G has a wider bandwidth, faster speed, and more extensive applications, meeting the future society's requirements for high transmission, low latency, and high reliability." Wang Peng, the deputy director of the Provincial Communications Administration, said. For example, in the case of parking payment that everyone is talking about now, under the 3G and 4G network conditions, the effect is not perfect. "The camera may not capture the driver, or it may capture but fail to transmit the information back in time, and the driver will be stopped and may even have to get out of the car and go back to pay again."

After the arrival of the 5G era, it will drive the entire industrial chain, involving hardware, software, and industrial services. It has a strong driving effect on the whole society. Wang Peng also pointed out that after the 5G information highway is built, it will take time to truly affect people's livelihood and drive industrial development.

The first batch of 5G mobile phones is about to be launched.

With the arrival of 5G, the development of the smartphone industry is also looking forward to a phased transformation node.

On April 2nd this year, China Mobile, in cooperation with enterprises, made the first 5G call in China, which means that an industry worth trillions of RMB has gradually kicked off. Wang Zhiqin pointed out that after the official commercialization of 5G, users will have to replace their terminal devices first. On the one hand, the operating speed of existing terminal devices cannot keep up with the speed of 5G. Wei Yunliang, a senior engineer from the Network Development Department of Jiangsu Telecom, said: "During the 5G commercial trial in 21 communities in Suzhou at the end of November last year, it was found that the hard drive speed of laptops could not keep up with the 5G network speed." On the other hand, the integration level of existing terminal devices is not high enough to meet the requirements of 5G.

So when will the first batch of 5G mobile phones be launched? Durgadoss Prasad Malladi, a senior vice president of Qualcomm, recently said in an interview that the company is preparing to launch the first batch of 5G smartphones in 2018, with a maximum speed of 4Gbps. Some experts pointed out that these phones are also backward compatible with 4G and 3G networks. If they are in cities or regions that do not support 5G networks, they will automatically switch. And faster network speed is just one of the features of 5G. It will also significantly improve the quality of users' calls. For example, your 5G phone will have a shorter connection time and clearer sound quality.

In the 5G era, mobile phones are becoming more intelligent. This not only tests the technical accumulation of mobile phone manufacturers in artificial intelligence, chips, cloud computing, etc., but also tests the comprehensive strength of a country's mobile phone industrial chain. Relying on the huge market dividends, China's mobile phone industrial chain achieved a full rise in the 4G era. Whether it can achieve full transcendence in the 5G era is worth looking forward to.

The issue of speed increase and fee reduction has always concerned a large number of communication users. After the commercialization of 5G, how will the fees be set? Wang Peng, the deputy director of the Provincial Communications Administration, said that it is still too early to discuss this issue. The large-scale commercialization of 5G is estimated to be around 2022. By then, Jiangsu will surely follow the national pace and protect the rights and interests of Jiangsu users in accordance with the requirements of speed increase and fee reduction.