Today, a photo has spread online claiming that the mobile operator "Kyivstar" plans to launch a 5G network in Kyiv starting July 21. At the same time, Kyivstar says that preparations for the deployment of 5G in Kyiv are ongoing, and the launch of the pilot project will be announced separately.
The Mobile Communications of Ukraine community drew attention to a banner of the operator "Kyivstar", which indicates that the operator plans to launch a 5G network in Kyiv on July 21, and by the end of the year, high-speed communication should also appear in Odesa.
At the same time, the press service of Kyivstar stated: "Preparations for the deployment of 5G in Kyiv are ongoing. We will announce the start of the pilot project on the official resources of Kyivstar. The information spread online is not an official communication of Kyivstar."
Earlier, Kyivstar stated that pilot 5G zones have already been deployed in three cities of Ukraine - Lviv, Kharkiv, and Borodianka. The company is also preparing to launch test sites in Kyiv and Odesa. The test results will be used to form approaches for the further development of the 5G network in Ukraine after the end of the war.
The press service of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine told a UNN journalist: "All operators are currently preparing for the launch of 5G in Kyiv and are carrying out the necessary technical work. The exact launch date will be announced after the completion of preparations and the actual launch of the network."
UNN looked into what data transmission technologies exist that ensure the transmission of information in the mobile communication network, and what the difference is between them.
1G - calls only
1G - the first generation of mobile communication, launched by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 1979, initially working for residents of Tokyo. By 1984, the network had covered all of Japan, making it the first country with national 1G coverage. In the United States, the 1G network appeared in March 1983, thanks to Ameritech. Canada soon received coverage as well. 1G was a real breakthrough and laid the foundation for the development of mobile networks of future generations.
However, the technology had significant drawbacks:
- low sound quality with noise;
- low data transfer speed (2.4 kbps);
- limited coverage;
- lack of roaming;
- lack of encryption, making calls easy to eavesdrop on.
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2G - the era of digital voice
2G is the second generation of mobile communication technology specifications. 2G allowed the transmission of not only voice but also data, which opened the way to features such as ringtones. It was thanks to the development of 2G that the ability to send SMS messages and multimedia MMS appeared.
Classic 2G (GSM) appeared in the early 90s and was created mainly for calls and SMS. The internet was catastrophically slow. Therefore, the technology developed in stages.
For example, 2G (GSM) was used for calls and messages. 2.5G (GPRS) became the first breakthrough. This technology already allowed access to the internet, with a data transfer speed of 56–114 kbps.
The last upgrade of the second generation was 2.75G, the well-known EDGE, or simply the letter "E" on your smartphone.
EDGE technology supports on average three times higher data transfer speed than GPRS; in addition, it provides more efficient use of frequency resources and improved network coverage compared to a conventional GSM network. The maximum achievable, theoretical, information transfer speed in an EDGE network is 474.6 kbps.
3G - mobile revolution
3G, the third generation of mobile communication technology, refers to a new generation of mobile communication systems that combine wireless communication with multimedia communication, such as the Internet.
If 2G was created for calls, and the internet was simply "tacked on," then 3G was developed from the very beginning with a focus on high-speed mobile internet.
3G has greater bandwidth and stable transmission, video calls and massive data transfer are more common, and mobile communication has more diverse applications.
If on EDGE (2.75G) the maximum speed was about 384 kbps, then in early 3G networks it started from 2 Mbps, and later, thanks to upgrade technologies (HSPA, HSPA+), it even "accelerated" to 42 Mbps.
With the advent of 3G, users were able for the first time to use video calls normally, watch videos on YouTube without constant buffering, listen to streaming music, and instantly download heavy maps. In classic 2G, it was impossible to talk on the phone and use the internet at the same time (the internet would pause). In 3G, this problem disappeared - data packets and voice learned to be transmitted in parallel.
In Ukraine, which implemented 3G one of the last in Europe, by the time the commercial network was launched in 2015, most subscribers already had 3G smartphones.
4G and 5G - new speed of mobile Internet
4G, or LTE (Long Term Evolution), is the fourth generation of mobile communication technology, which, in addition to transmitting high-quality images, can also transmit high-quality video images.
The 4G network provides data download speeds of up to 700 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 90 Mbps.
Initially, the LTE standard did not belong to the fourth generation of mobile communication 4G and was developed as an improved version of 3G, namely 3GPP (The Third Generation Partnership Project). But after the work and testing were completed, the International Telecommunication Union in 2012 officially recognized LTE as a technology that meets all the requirements of fourth-generation wireless connection.
This standard gained great popularity among cellular operators due to the possibility of implementation on existing cellular networks.
After entering the 4G era, global mobile communication standards showed a trend towards further integration. In terms of impact, 4G can be called a communication technology developed for mobile Internet.
In terms of network speed, bandwidth, stability, etc., 4G has significantly improved compared to the previous generation 3G technology. It can meet the needs of almost all users for wireless services, opening a new wave of mobile Internet.
5G pilot launched in Ukraine for the first time - in Lviv12.01.26, 12:15
5G is the fifth generation of mobile communication, which provides significantly higher data transfer speeds, minimal signal latency, and is capable of simultaneously serving many more devices than 4G networks.
Key features and benefits of 5G
- high speed: data transfer speed in 5G is 10 times higher than the capabilities of 4G;
- low latency: almost instant response (pings 1-5 ms), which is critical for online games, remote surgery, and autonomous vehicles;
- massive connectivity: the network can support up to 1 million devices per square kilometer, which promotes the development of the Internet of Things (IoT);
- energy efficiency: devices with 5G consume less energy, which extends battery life;
- use of new frequencies: networks operate in frequency ranges from 3.4 to 3.8 GHz and higher, which requires the installation of a larger number of base stations.
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