Since the time the pandemic arrived, people have understood the importance of fibre broadband connections as they let you work from home and help you do almost everything online with reliability and confidence that you can’t do with mobile networks. 4G networks are good and decent to allow you to watch YouTube videos, stream Netflix or play games online, but they are not enough when a slightly higher bandwidth is required. Most of all, 4G networks can’t be relied upon because the network in your area can be congested anytime, and it would lead to a failure in the activity you are trying to do. But this is where 5G can be different. The capacity of 5G networks would be significantly higher, and with fibre as well as E-band backhaul, the services should improve drastically. Regardless, 5G can’t be an alternative to fibre broadband, believes Vivek Raina, the CEO and co-founder of Excitel, one of the fastest-growing private internet service providers (ISPs) in India. Excitel currently offers plans with internet speeds of up to 400 Mbps. We asked Raina about the competition that 5G can create by offering such speeds to consumers directly via mobile networks. Here’s what he said.
5G is for People on the Go; Fibre Broadband is for People Inside Homes and Offices
Raina said, “5G is the same as 4G; the fact is that the speed is more. It is pure physics. The more you increase the speed, the less will be the network’s propensity to enter the walls. Like when we had 3G, it was working better indoors. 4G started working very bad, and 5G will be even worse. All these mobile technologies are meant for on-the-go work. If you are on the move, on the streets, on buses, or cars, then 5G is meant for that. But if you are inside the home, it is always wireline. There are no data limits to wireline, but with mobile networks, there’s always a FUP limit because there is limited capacity on each cell site. For wireline, it is individual capacity delivered to each household and is meant for that household only. There is no comparison between wireline and wireless. If 5G can deliver 400 Mbps speed, then that’s great for all of us, but it is always for on-the-move people.” You can listen to the entire conversation by watching the YouTube video above.
