Tehranis Get a Glimpse of 5G Technology

Tehran’s Milad Tower hosted Iran’s first conference on 5G on October 17 with industry professionals and international experts in attendance.

Iran’s mobile communications market is growing exponentially and high-speed Internet is finally being accepted as an advantage to local business. Hence, 5G internet is likely to boost this further.

At the same event, several telecommunications standards were introduced to the market by industry players from Europe and Asia discussing the progress.

A survey on the event’s Twitter account asked Internet users whether 3G or 4G was better, and unsurprisingly the newer technology was voted as not having as strong a signal as 3G.

5G or the fifth generation of mobile networks denotes the proposed next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the current 4G standards.

Rather than faster peak Internet connection speeds, 5G planning aims at a higher capacity than current 4G, allowing a greater number of mobile broadband users per area unit, and allowing consumption of higher or unlimited data quantities in gigabyte per minute and user.

The new broadcast standard would make it feasible for a significant portion of the population to consume high-quality streaming media many hours per day on their mobile devices, also when out of reach of Wi-Fi hotspots.

At the opening of the event, Ata Malekitabar, the head of Presidential Office’s Information and Communications Technology Bureau, outlined the preliminary steps that the state and the private sector are to take in this industry.

Werner Mohr, the head of research at Nokia-Siemens Networks, said at the event, “One of the main obstacles in the way of Internet of Things is extensive energy consumption, and 5G removes this barrier.”

The new generation is to decrease costs, battery consumption and latency compared with 4G equipment, while also helping media connections.

Hamid Reza Nikoufar, deputy managing director of Mobile Communications Company of Iran (MCI), said at the event, “MCI has been ranked 22nd among national telecoms companies around the world.”

He noted that MCI is going to offer 5G services as soon as possible.

Nikoufar also addressed the topic of self-driving vehicles, which has recently gained momentum throughout the media.

“To enable people to use self-driving cars, vehicles will be equipped with 5G technology,” he added.

Another speaker at the event, Javan Erfanian from the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance spoke about the technical hurdles.

NGMN is an international mobile telecommunications association of mobile operators, vendors, manufacturers and research institutes.

Erfanian said, “5G will open the doors to the new digital era. The fifth generation of mobile communications would revolutionize all aspects of human life, from healthcare to economics and industries”.

Minou Abedi, a senior analyst and network economist of Deutsche Telekom, said, “To keep pace with the market, apart from applying cutting edge business models, companies should invest in new technologies like 5G.”

According to Abedi, unlike previous generations, 5G is exclusively designed to respond to the needs of the market and is based on the latest business models.

Also at the same event, Ericsson conducted a test using the company’s 5G technology, which was able to transfer 15 gigabits of data per second per user, with a response time of fewer than three milliseconds.

The new record surpasses the maximum 4G-networks of more than 40 times.

The next 5G conference will be held in Tehran in 2017, according to the event’s organizers.