García & Bodán

5G, a reality for the Mobile Telephony in Guatemala

Until now the mobile telephony service has been able to provide their users different plans that suits their mobile navigation needs, being perhaps the most used in the last 5 years, the proportion of LTE network (Long Term Evolution). Until now, the speed navigation has been fast enough to reach speeds of a megabyte per second. Nevertheless, this doesn’t compare with the imminent technology of fifth generation (5G).

The novelty of 5G is not only reflected in the wireless connection speed, but also in the concept known as latency, being the period of time between the instruction that the mobile device sends, until the moment where an answer exists, which would be reduced under the 5 milliseconds or a speed that could encompass until 100 devices per square meter. Undoubtedly, this creates a speed in the network operations never experimented before.

Achieving that the 5G technology may be implemented at a massive commercial level by the year 2020, will be essential to achieve success in key sectors of the industry, such as digital technology, health and inclusive the automotive sector. In the case of health, the exorbitant speeds may achieve the operations management carried out remotely by machines controlled by automatized systems. Or, in the case of automotive sector, achieving a complete automation in the conduction of transportation in the air transport.

Such technology may be subject to legal protection, for example through patents. According to Guatemalan legislation, “an invention is patentable when it has novelty, inventive level and is susceptible of industrial application“. These patents are valid for twenty years and their scope allows the production or manufacture of the product, marketing it, among others. The first products whose patents submitted for registration in other countries, will start commercializing this year and directors of Huawei, Orange and Nokia, among others, are already betting for a latency -the response time between the instruction to a mobile until the moment that this reacts- never seen before. In the case of Nokia, the company demonstrated the first uses of this technology through an ecosystem of products Airscale that may be connected between mobiles, vehicles and inclusively home systems.

Without a doubt, it will be interesting to evaluate the uses that a speed of this magnitude could achieve. If all the predicted development for the next couple of years may results in what has been predicted, the 5G technology may lead to what many consider the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which would encompass the entire world.

Ma. Mercedes Castro
Managing Director
García & Bodán
Guatemala