By Chris Keall
A year ago this week, New Zealand became just the 22nd country in the world to gain a 5G mobile network as Vodafone launched service in parts of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.
So how's it going? For one thing, even faster. The NZ Herald recently clocked a head-spinning 810 megabits per second on Auckland's North Shore. That's much faster than most people's UFB (Utrafast Broadband) fibre landline connections.
It's the sort of speed that would let you download a high definition movie to your phone in about 16 seconds -give or take - ahead of the "phones off" order as a plane taxis before takeoff.
5G was no slouch last December, as it smashed speed records. But Vodafone's top engineer in charge of the upgrade, Thaigan Govender, explains that while Vodafone launched with 20 megahertz of bandwidth, it's now utilising three times as much capacity.
Another big change: Apple has joined the party. In October, it launched four models of the iPhone 12, all supporting the faster, smarter 5G. The new range spans from the 12 Pro Max, whose 6.7-inch display is the largest ever sported by an iPhone, to the 12 mini, which Apple bills as the world's thinnest and lightest 5G handset. Certainly, it's small enough to hold in one hand and reach every part of its screen with your thumb.
The new iPhones join marquee Samsung models such as the Note20 Ultra 5G and the S20 Ultra 5G, plus more keenly-priced 5G models from the likes of Oppo and Huawei.
5G has become a must-have feature for your next phone upgrade, and whether you're in the Apple or Android camp, you've now got a heap of choice. You don't need to change your sim card, and there's no surcharge yet - though given 5G's blistering speed, it pays to make sure you're on an endless data or unlimited data plan.
Sure, the fastest, most expensive types of UFB fibre connections still have the edge - but you can't pop them in your pocket and take them with you.
And that's something that's mattered over the past 12 months. The Covid-19 pandemic, has of course, overshadowed all else in 2020. The initial lockdown over March and April saw a freeze on mobile network upgrades, in keeping with the government's Level 4 guidelines and, Govender says, delivery of network parts suffered delays of up to six months.
Mobile technology also played a key role as New Zealand abruptly shifted to working from home - and in coordinating the government's response on March 25, the day the country moved to a Level 4 lockdown.
Police called on Vodafone to provide communications for the multi-agency New Zealand Government Covid-19 Operations Command Centre in Wellington and the telco was able to stand up a 5G fixed wireless (also called 5G broadband) network for 120 staff at the Centre within hours.
Vodafone already has a substantial 4G fixed-wireless business - using its mobile network to deliver broadband into a home or business as a landline substitute. Its next step will be a substantial rollout of a 5G broadband service which is poised to be one of the Next Big Things of 2021.
Where 4G broadband has been a boon for people in areas not yet covered by the UFB (Ultrafast Broadband) rollout, 5G broadband with its super-fast speeds in many locations could emerge as a cheaper, easier fibre-alternative. Data caps used to be a limitation for mobile broadband, but Vodafone now has most fixed-wireless customers on landline-like caps, while thousands are being trialled on unlimited data plans.
Govender says Vodafone has been infilling 5G coverage in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown. More towns and cities will follow in 2021.
He says in the next 12 to 24 months, we'll see the first "Standalone 5G" service. Whereas today's 5G coverage piggybacks, to some degree, on 4G networks, Standalone 5G will offer full-tilt speed for uploads as well as downloads.
And while 5G's latency (lag with two-way connections) is already much-improved over earlier mobile technologies, advances in 5G specs over the next couple of years will make it nearly imperceptible from a landline.
We'll also see increased smarts, such as network slicing - or different 5G "channels" customised for different types of user - be they a machine talking to another machine, or a bandwidth-hogging gamer.
Things will move to another level still when the government auctions so-called millimeter wave or "mmWave" bandwidth - possibly as soon as the end of next year. There's already some mmWave 5G service in the US, where the speed record sits just above 4 gigabits per second.
In simple terms, that'll mean anything your landline service can do, your mobile will be able to do better.
To find out more about Vodafone see www.vodafone.co.nz/5G