The ” telcos” have changed our lives individually and also to society as a whole . A few decades ago, we felt incredibly lucky to be able to talk to our acquaintances on a mobile line. Just a few years later, we had already gotten used to it and now we take it for granted. Society changes as we adopt technology, sometimes without any control .
0G existed, and it changed wars
Wireless technology was not born with commercial technology, which would come many decades later. The ability to communicate between platoons, or with command, completely changed the rules of war. And then it altered everything else.
By 1960, it was already relatively common to see mobile radio telephones in some truck cabins, at least in then-advanced countries. These pre-cellular devices (cellular comes from “cell”, which is how the territory is divided by means of antennas) helped to deploy postal delivery systems, facilitated the daily life of the police and managed to connect many municipalities with the world.
1G telephony, when telecommunications were analog
There was a time when mobile phone circuits worked using analog signals instead of digital ones. In any case, at that time, the 1980s in Spain, practically no one had terminals capable of capturing the signal. The radio maps were barren, with only several points where the signal was clearly picked up.
Still, this first mobile generation made many businesses take off like never before. With cellular technology, mobile phone base stations began to be deployed that provided coverage to smaller and smaller towns. The telephone exchanges (CT) were the first to provide mobile service with their towers. The world accelerated, technology too.
2G, the arrival of digitization
2G did something that seemed magical at the time: with better use of the radio spectrum (thanks to techniques such as signal multiplexing), it became possible to make more calls per square kilometer. Quality went up, noise went down and telephony achieved a commercial deployment that shook not only the labor fabric, but also relationships.
Companies significantly reduced their costs thanks to instant communication. The mobile became so cheap that it began to be given to teenagers. Those who in 1995 were old enough to handle a terminal became the first connected generation . Your friends were “one touch” away or, if you had credit, an SMS.
At that time, protests against digital telephony became relatively frequent, despite being completely innocuous. The deniers were born, although not much attention was paid to them until fiber optics allowed them to group together. Fortunately, we get positive aspects.
With 2G, a very important part of the population had access to a social universe that had been unattainable until then. Many social movements gained momentum thanks to roaming between phone companies. It was possible to travel to other countries and receive calls. Also put people on hold and even block numbers, which served to protect people from commercials.
2.5G, forgotten but essential telecommunications generation
It didn’t last long because it was a twist on 2G, but 2.5G allowed, among other things, mobile games, access to email or videoconferences . The first company to bring this technology to the world of work achieved a previously impossible market share and, in turn, exploded with a level of innovation and speed never seen before.
Businesses have become so much more flexible that even, over time, it is impossible to give an adjusted figure of the millions of millions of dollars (this is not a typo, between 2000 and 2005 the world’s GDP went from 32 million million dollars to more than Four. Five). The 2.5G was, without a doubt, a takeoff for business .
The era of data has arrived thanks to 3G
Almost parallel to 2.5G and overlapping with 2G, 3G significantly improved data transfer at low cost. It is said that it democratized the use of data. If until then the mobile was used to talk or send emails (the latter in business), now the smartphone has arrived , a multipurpose pocket computer so cheap that everyone could buy one.
Then something happened that no one knew how to predict: the market for mobile apps was born . As mobile phones had become general purpose processors, they could run programs on them. These mini-programs, or apps , changed the paradigm of internet access and human communication.
To begin with, they were the breeding ground for mobile social networks , whose business model based on data and advertising has been questioned for putting even democratic values in check. No, not everything was going to be good. Although without a doubt, applications have changed the way we work and relate to each other.
Asynchronous chats (deferred in time) have replaced many calls, and the time gained due to lack of interruptions has been wasted by scrolling through social networks. The mobile has become the multi- purpose tool .
4G, hyperconnectivity arrives
With 4G, speed increases a lot, latency decreases, quality improves and new services appear, most of them for companies. But, on a social level, the impact has been enormous. For starters, it enables high-quality video calls on the go, and that means you can cover a story with a high-quality mobile phone. Now everything is known.
And, as everything is known, everything is said in real time. The fourth generation of telecommunications is perhaps the one with the greatest political impact , both because of the gaps caused by polarization and echo chambers, and because of the ease of creating a political movement that can move a large number of people in a short time. And also by mass surveillance and by default.
This brings with it numerous challenges of social cohesion , but also miracles such as an intensive use of the built-in knowledge capacity of millions of people. It has made it possible for people to participate in world development with new tools.
What 5G already brings
In addition to speed and latency, 5G is an enabler of technologies that have been waiting for their moment to emerge. Among the most prominent, we can mention autonomous driving, which promises to revolutionize the entire society .
Without abandoning mobility, it will also facilitate greater amortization of the environmental cost of manufacturing the vehicle , because it will be used for more hours a day, as is already the case with carsharing . Along with this, 5G will fill (even more) our home with devices, allowing us to connect all appliances to an intelligent network that makes decisions for us.
For the user, improvements in usability have multiplied exponentially. The image above belongs to Legion Phone Duel , the new generation of Lenovo smartphones aimed at the gamer world . Thanks to 5G, it is possible to use them as a portable console with almost zero latency.
And what about 6G?
As a technology enabler, 6G will help manage current technology much more efficiently. Also to lower its price and make it more accessible. This includes health wearables beyond fitness trackers. There are already several brands of 5G connected T-shirts and they are expected to be a commercial reality in a few years, perhaps when 6G supports viable connections between smart fabrics and telephony.
Along with this, the sixth generation of mobile telephony will lead to the hyper-sensorization of public space , which in turn will generate a reduction in urban pollution and crime, but also a better use of public space. As with previous generations, some already fear its use (for no reason) , but we will all get used to its new features within a few years of its availability.
