How Unlimited Mobile Data and 5G Will Make VR the New Normal

This is the companion piece to my last article on mobile data, The dark (and not-so-dark) side of mobile data.

The stage is set, were just not quite there yet. When 5G internet becomes a reality, when the mobile data source is unlimited, and when Virtual Reality and Augmented applications proliferate, it wont be that odd to see someone walking down the street with a headset on.

First, the mobile web and data. If a mobile web provider limits the amount of data you can use, its undoubtedly a money-making scheme. The data itself is not a commodity. This is evidenced by a provider like T-Mobile offering 2 smartphone lines of unlimited data and including video streaming and mobile hotspots for no extra charge. To offer streaming data and hotspot data as add-ons is to imply that these data are fundamentally different than cellular data, theyre bonus data, a special kind of data the provider could potentially charge extra for.

But data is data. Theres no limit to it, and increasingly, providers are making unlimited data plans the standard. The difference between streaming video data and audio data, say, is that a packet of video data is much larger, because it includes both pictures and audio. True, it takes more power and server space to host video data. It also takes up more bandwidth space to stream video, and when millions of people are streaming at the same time, it slows down speeds. The only thing thats truly limited is the technology we use to transmit data and how much of the radio-frequency spectrum were accessing with technology. This is where 5G comes in.

5G is the fabled fifth generation of wireless data transmission, its like the distant city you traveled to with your family as a kid on a trip that seemed like it would never end. 4G currently transmits data at hundreds of megabits, up to a gigabit, of data per second. LTE (Long Term Evolution) is an access network for 4G that uses OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)  encoding, in combination with transmission advancements such as large bandwidths up to 20 megahertz in width, to provide more data at higher speeds than any previous generation.

5G will also use OFDM encoding. Improvement will come at points of transmission. Instead of huge towers, well see small devices, such as Wi-Fi routers, accessing larger bandwidths to transmit more data with less latency. The aim is 20 gigabits per second at a 1-millisecond latency. This will be super fast. 5G will allow Virtual Reality devices to operate at speeds nearly indistinguishable from how quickly the brain processes reality.

The first fully-operational 5G networks are due to go up in 2020. But Verizon is already field-testing the technology, and expects some level of commercial deployment in 2017. Once 5G is realized, much larger amounts of data will be able to travel quickly down a wider stream. This, in turn, will enable VR to reach its zenith.

Even without the 5G network in place, current estimates foresee Augmented and Virtual Reality devices reaching $150 billion in sales by 2020. Another entrant in alternate reality tech, Mixed Reality (MR) will also be part of this new era. Examples in the MR arena include Googles Magic Leap and Microsofts HoloLens.

Apples Tim Cook is really excited about Augmented Reality in particular. He says, AR can be really great. And we have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We are high on AR for the long run. We think there are great things for customers and a great commercial opportunityit will be huge.   

Right now, AR and VR devices receive 4G data, with smartphones as the conduit. The packets of data are incredibly large and can easily be subject to slow speeds. 5G will make unlimited mobile data truly mean something for VR. Youll be able to access as much streaming data for your VR or AR device as your provider will allow before they jack up the price or purposefully slow down your speed. And competition will make that sort of manipulation rare. PCMags Sascha Segan says, The biggest change 5G may bring is in virtual and augmented reality. As phones transform into devices meant to be used with VR headsets, the very low latency and consistent speeds of 5G will give you an Internet-augmented world, if and when you want it.

What could this do for eCommerce? Virtual shopping may very well become mainstream. Amazon is already creating a VR platform, ostensibly for streaming video. But why wouldnt users be able to shop on the platform? Knowing Amazon, thats the plan. When enabled by the seamlessness of 5G, this could spell real trouble for retailers who dont have such a platform.

According to a Villanova University report on eCommerce, Amazon saw a 97% increase in sales year-over-year in 2015. Amazon will pass Macys as the number one clothing store in 2017. Americans spend an average of 4.7 hours per day on their smartphones, and 40% of respondents to a survey, who were between 19 and 33 years old, use their smartphones to make purchases. Expect Amazon to use its eCommerce predominance to take advantage of this trend in a virtual environment. 

Businesses can also harness VR for their internal processes. Using Filemaker and REST APIs, data analysts are able to create a virtual view of data sets, because REST is a standard for manipulating data in a standardized format that represents the data. 5G will allow remote workers to quickly access virtual representations of company data on their mobile devices. 

Once entertainment, shopping, and business options are available in a speedy and convenient virtual world, VR will become the new normal. My prediction: a tech company, such as Apple, will create a device that combines VR, AR, and MR–an iPhone of alternate reality. With the cloud, apps, and streaming content at its fingertips, this all-in-one device will corner the emerging and promising VR market.