5G is barely here and there’s already talk about 6G and how supersonic fast it might be, when it gets here, in 2030’ish, but that’s not the real story, the big horizon changer here is the introduction of an interoperable Industrial 5G standard later this year that will kick start the next big things.

In 1979 1G arrived in Tokyo with little fanfare and little mainstream purpose, Australia didn’t switch it on until 1987, it was purely analogue, phone call only, and perceived by most as a why would anyone need it?, expensive, pretentious toy.

2G hit the airwaves first in Finland in 1991 and in Australia on the 27 April 1993, it improved the sound quality, introduced encrypted calls, was of course faster and for the first time could download data as well which gave birth to SMS MMS, individual ring tones, snakes, games, and the rise and rise of Nokia Phones.

10 years later and with growing global demand and popularity, 3G was birthed in Japan in 2001 and in Australia in 2003. It was 4x faster then 2G and heralded in the smart phone era and the rise of the blackberry and the iPhone.

Mobile phones, tablets and more became the norm and demanded more grunt and speed and in 2009 Norway was the first to switch on 4g and in June 2013 Vodafone was the first to switch it on in Australia and the smartphone revolution went into overdrive with the late majority discovering the joy and ease of portable communication, rendering smart phones and devices a must have and 4g an necessity.

Never satisfied on April 3, 2019 5G launched in the Unites States and soon after in Australia and we are just coming up to speed with what it offers, new mobile devices and its potential.

6G is slated for somewhere around 2030 and China is already talking about hypersonic speed and its possibilities, but in this week’s on air Hong Kong Radio 3 chat we talk about the history of the G’s, what technologies and innovations each G evolution encouraged and why the next big frontier is not really 5 or 6g but Industrial 5 and 6G – when machines, roads, transport, houses, built environments, factories, manufacturing, autonomous devices, robots and yet to be created metaverses jump on to the super digital highways and the changes these will bring to the way we live, love and work.

Listen now: