Most people know 5G from newspaper reports of anti-5G activists setting antennas on fire against radiation or telecom advertisements featuring self-driving cars and remote operations. The public debate around 5G is characterised by two extremes: a distopia versus a utopia. Missing from this is a middle ground, namely the conversation about the social value of 5G. How do we want to be connected? And is 5G necessary for that?
In the blog series The Black Box of 5G, Waag Futurelab takes a first step to start that conversation. We break open the black box of 5G. Hidden behind the design of 5G is a world of trade-offs, choices and interests. How do these choices affect our society? This blog series discusses that question through three themes: public space, privacy and ecology. But in this first article of the series, we start at the beginning: what exactly is 5G? And who is developing it?