5G and innovation in the Windy City
5G is the fifth generation of wireless communication technology and it's starting to come online in places like Chicago. 5G will connect the way Americans think, live and play. It's no wonder Chicago's entrepreneurs, nonprofits and small business owners are eagerly awaiting this next generation of connectivity.
In a few years, people could very well say 5G took off in Chicago, thanks to a unique mix of history, culture and a quest to bring vision, talent and capital together.
To understand 5G, it's helpful to understand what came before it. Broadly, the first generation of mobile technology, 1G, was about voice. The advent of 2G introduced a short-messaging layer, i.e., texting. The move to 3G provided the essential network speeds for smartphones - think first generation iPhones with basic emailing and web browsing. And 4G gave rise to many of the connected devices, applications and services we rely on and enjoy today, like Uber and Netflix.
But 5G is an exponential leap forward from 4G. Its speed, capacity and responsiveness are expected to propel our world into the next digital age. The new network will enable billions of devices to operate and communicate in near-real time, benefiting almost every sector of our economy.
For example, production facilities will be able to leverage 5G to analyze performance in real time, enabling them to make instant and autonomous changes and corrections. Doctors will be able to communicate critical information with more reliable speed to treat patients in brand new ways. Augmented and virtual reality will become ubiquitous as new data-transfer capacities allow consumers to overlay data into their physical worlds without a time lag.
These are just some examples of what our world will look like with 5G. The possibilities are endless.
Today, many factors situate Chicago to shape the future. In addition to being one of the first cities with 5G, it has positioned itself as a multi-industry city and, therefore, has several natural pathways for growth.
One in particular is its industrial sector. Chicago has a rich ecosystem of industrial and manufacturing innovation, primarily centered around the internet of Things (IoT). IoT connectivity in a "smart factory" setting is set to be a near-term and profound-use case of 5G, and organizations like mHUB and the Chicago Connectory are helping catalyze the next generation of industrial and hardware innovation.
Chicago is also a growing mecca for tech startups and incubators, such as 1871, a 140,000-square-foot tech free-range where thousands of people converge to design, collaborate, solve problems, learn and just think.
Not long ago, I hosted an event there and met with innovators to talk about how 5G could propel their businesses and visions forward - changing the way the Windy City lives and works.
During the event, Rumi Morales of Outlier Ventures, Beau D'Arcy of Breakwater Chicago and Robert Johnson of The Collective recognized that Chicago is a great place for tech startups and expanded on how 5G could change finance, entertainment, public safety, community engagement and more.
For those possibilities to become realities, a robust, next-generation network needs to be in place. As Robert noted, it's important to get the groundwork right and the best way to do that is to engage network operators, elected officials and community groups alike.
Tech entrepreneurs aren't the only ones thinking about what's next with 5G. Chicago-based Britney Robbins of the Gray Matter Experience is exposing youth to entrepreneurship and giving them tools to create, launch and run startups that positively impact their communities. As Britney said in a Faces of 5G video, "5G to me is innovation" and will "allow us to spread our mission more broadly and really expand our services to students outside the city of Chicago."
There is a lot of excitement in Chicago for 5G and for good reason. The seeds for transformative change are there and, the faster the network is widely in place, the faster we'll see them bloom.
Matthew Weinberg is executive director of Faces of 5G, a principal at Max Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in New York and a former political appointee at the U.S. Small Business Administration during the Obama administration.