Ask HN: In which areas of society do you think 5G will have the biggest impacts?

5 points by ericintheloft2 7 years ago | 7 comments

With 5G now being rolled out to replace 3G/4G around the world, in which areas of society do you think we will see the biggest impacts?

abledon 7 years ago |

Babies whose skulls are not fully formed to shield from high powered radio waves will be put inside protective baby ranges until they are old enough to venture out into 5G zones

CM30 7 years ago |

Video streaming and uploading. I suspect we'll see a lot more people running livestreams outside their home/office, like in various tourist destinations or on the daily commute. YouTubers will also probably like being able to post videos more easily when out and about too.

Based on this, I also think it's likely streaming video may become more of a centrepiece for mobile apps and what not than it is today. Imagine having a news reporting app that lets people at the scene of an incident/event report the news like they're on network TV. Could be quite the boon to citizen journalism.

Might also help remote working become viable for more people as well. The old digital nomad lifestyle wasn't too practical without wifi before, but now working anywhere could be a lot more literal.

GFischer 7 years ago | |

I want to try my hand again at video-sales. Huge market there (tried my hand at a startup, unfortunately didn't get funding and WebRTC was a bit flaky as well).

WheelsAtLarge 7 years ago |

TV as we know it will change. The increase in speed and the always on capability will help streaming tv replace what we know now as over the air tv. What we know as scheduled programming will disappear. Youtube and Netflix will dominate and become the new TV.

This is happening now the difference is that 5g will increase speed, bandwidth will be unlimited and our TVs will always be connected.

I suspect that anyone will be able to start their own 5g streaming service and the impact of that on society will be immense.

We complain about facebook distorting society now imagine a world where anyone can start an easy to use streaming service and they can broadcast anything they want.

Gustomaximus 7 years ago | |

> where anyone can start an easy to use streaming service and they can broadcast anything they want.

Why does this change with 5G as compared to today?

WheelsAtLarge 7 years ago | | |

5g devices will be everywhere and bandwidth will be unlimited as opposed to the metered version we have now. It won't be tomorrow but 20 years from now is a good bet.

PaulHoule 7 years ago |

I think fixed wireless will take a chunk out of wireline in a few places such as urban areas where many customers are in sight of a millimeter wave tower but also exurban areas that are a mile or two from the end of the cable line and are underserved with slow DSL. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mo all have substantial amounts of UHF spectrum and could pressure Frontier and other bottom feeders.