Production: Adriana Toca
The rollout of 5G, the next generation of mobile broadband, is drawing a lot of buzz on social media. What exactly does 5G consist of and what advantages will it bring us? How do you explain some pseudoscientific conspiracy theories that circulate around this technology?
In this video, we will try to answer these questions.
In 2020, with the implementation of 5G in several cities around the world, it coincides with the global pandemic of COVID-19, giving rise to crazy conspiracy theories in this regard.
The most famous assumption is that 5G can somehow ‘transport’ the coronavirus, to inoculate it in the population; Or, in the same way, that it can carry information that can be ‘activated’ in some way through the COVID-19 vaccine.
Turning to the most elementary science we can easily dismantle these conspiracies. According to Alberto Nájera López, physicist, doctor in Neurosciences, professor, researcher and coordinator of the Scientific Culture Unit of the University of Castilla La Mancha, the assumption that 5G can ‘transport’ a virus ignores basic laws of physics and biology.
5G is electromagnetic radiation. In other words, it is non-ionizing radiation: it does not have the ability to ‘rip’ an electron from the atom; and, therefore, it is not capable of modifying, for example, the DNA of our cells.
And, for the same reason, it cannot transport any type of matter. The wave carries energy from one place to another, but nothing else.
Advantages of 5G
Global connectivity needs are constantly evolving. Global mobile data traffic is expected to multiply by 5 before the end of 2024, which means 4G networks simply can’t keep up. For this reason, 5G has begun to be deployed progressively, but we are still far from its full deployment worldwide. What advantages will 5G bring?
First, latency, or the time it takes for devices to communicate with wireless networks, will drop dramatically. Data speeds will be 10 to 100 times faster than current 4G networks. That is, we can see download speeds of the order of several gigabits per second, much higher than the speeds of 4G to megabits per second.
5G will also change mobility, since it will allow autonomous vehicles to communicate quickly, opening the possibility of making preventive decisions, and therefore improving safety.
