5G: Understanding the Technology & Protection Strategies

Topics include differentiating 5G from prior technologies, the massive expansion of current infrastructure, the health hazards and effects, how to identify and mitigate the hazards to health that 5G presents. Learn to see through industry misinformation and deploy solutions.

There is a growing awareness in the population of the adverse health effects of wireless technology. The introduction of the next generation of wireless technology, known as 5G, has elevated the public discussion, causing concerns to grow rapidly and expand. Those who have already developed sickness from wireless technology radiation, such as cancer and those who suffer from microwave sickness (also known as electromagnetic sensitivity), are especially impacted.

5G is more of a concept than a technology. 5G is the infrastructure that supports the Internet of Things (IoT). While 1G through 4G were about connecting people, 5G would connect things. It purports to interconnect the things we own, and support self-driving cars, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

On July 14, 2016, the FCC announced that it would fast-track the deployment of 5G. The US government and Congress considers 5G to be the foremost important economic driver of our time and refers to it as the ‘third industrial revolution’. It also has become a matter of national security because of the perceived cold war with China, and for that reason, it is often said that the US ‘must win the 5G race’.

To support the exponentially higher amount of data that is needed to be transmitted and the use of these new technologies, an additional massive infrastructure of antennas is believed by industry to be required in closer proximity to our homes. It is estimated that smaller cell towers, referred to as “small cells,” will be placed every 2-10 homes.

To be able to provide a bigger bandwidth to transmit the exponentially higher amounts of data and the quick response times that are felt to be needed for some of the new technologies, part of the 5G infrastructure will rely on antennas that transmit millimeter waves (‘mmw’). However, the use of millimeter waves is only one part of the infrastructure of 5G, as it will also rely heavily on the existing 4G network and on further deployment of many small cell 4G LTE antennas, particularly in residential neighborhoods. New types of antennas would be used to support new complex technologies and the infrastructure will continuously change as technology evolves.