Having to wait for films and games to download could be a thing of the past, at least for those living in South Korea. The government has announced plans to introduce superfast mobile internet that will allow users to download and start watching a film instantly.
The South Korean government announced this week that it is going to invest $1.5bn in the development of mobile technology that’s 1,000 times faster than the best services available at the moment.
The proposed 5G technology, which will improve upon current 4G technology, will allow users to download full-length films in one second.
For customers this will mark an almost total elimination of waiting times when wanting to download a movie. While it should also be possible to use the greater internet capacity for running multiple applications and background updates while
South Korea is the latest interested party to begin researching the next generation of mobile internet. Samsung is currently at the forefront of development and announced a breakthrough in technology last year.
However those eager for a more connected world will have to wait for a few years yet as the South Korean government have said if all goes to plan a trial 5G service should be in place by 2017. A full commercial service is intended to be in place three years later.
Sceptics of the faster speeds will question the time it will take to upgrade systems, with 4G in the UK taking a long time to be implemented by mobile networks.
EE was the first company to start providing a live 4G network in the UK, which was switched on and launched at the end of October. The network is available in 160 towns and cities across the country but coverage still remains patchy in areas – with approximately 70% of the country covered by the end of 2013.
Other competitors started rolling out their coverage in the months after EE but some lagged behind. Judging by the time it has taken for the 4G network to be adopted in the UK, including the lengthy bidding processes for a share of the network, it could be a long time after 2020 before 5G is introduced.
Image courtesy of Ariel da Silva Parreira.