5G CHANGES EVERYTHING
Widespread deployment and adoption of 5G
mobile networks will accelerate micro-location
services and their success. With zero-latency
networks just around the corner, corporations
and consumers will be able to access live feeds
of their homes and offices in real-time, anywhere
in the world, whatever they’re doing. In the
decades ahead, we’ll barely remember a world
before micro-location awareness, developing
a “sixth-sense” of location and function for all
of our places and devices, with assets, maps
and controls delivering features around you,
your home, and your office. And that’s without
mentioning AR and VR.
With the ongoing COVID-19 scare in China,
for example, many industries have ground to
a halt, unable to power back up until the virus
is under control. China’s property developers
and realtors, however, aren’t showing signs of
slowing down. Rather than shutting up shop,
they’re turning to virtual reality salesrooms
and live streams to thaw a frozen market as the
coronavirus epidemic keeps offices shut and
potential buyers afraid to leave their homes.
Using technology to bring locations closer to us
is already being used, but further refinements
are required to create platforms that can deliver
mainstream success.
Personal navigation and location awareness are
also set for innovations. We all trust our GPS to
take us from the convenience store to home, but
it only tells us with around 50% probability that
you are within a defined distance – say 1 meter
- from an indicated position. 5G offers larger
bandwidths and frequencies, and as a result,