Have you fallen for the rumors and scams about 5G?

Since the birth of mankind, cutting-edge technology has been accompanied by rumors and misunderstandings, and the root cause is often people's fear of the unknown. In today's world of rapid development of informatization and intelligence, looking at new things with a scientific spirit and examining new technologies with a rational eye should become a necessary quality for modern people.

This issue of "5G+" will review the rumors and scams related to 5G for readers, and use facts and data to distinguish the truth from the false for 5G.

5G causes cancer and harms health? False!

As 5G commercialization continues to deepen and the construction of 5G base stations accelerates, more and more people are feeling the convenience that 5G brings to their lives.

At the same time, some rumors related to 5G have also emerged one after another. Recently, sensational rumors such as 5G can cause changes in heart rhythm and gene expression, and even damage DNA and cause cancer have spread wildly in WeChat groups. In addition, news such as 5G is harmful to health and spreads the new coronavirus is also ridiculous.

Interestingly, the same rumor-mongering tactics also appeared when 4G was first launched. There are countless rumors such as "4G brings greater radiation" and "frequent use of 4G to surf the Internet can cause cancer".

In fact, as early as 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the "International Electromagnetic Field Program" to investigate whether long-term exposure to extremely low frequency electric and magnetic fields would harm human health. The project released its assessment results in 2008: So far, no study has shown consistent evidence that exposure to radio frequency field intensities below the limit that causes tissue heating will produce adverse health consequences. In other words, lower levels of electromagnetic radiation are not harmful to human health.

Electromagnetic radiation is everywhere in our lives. The human body is filled with electrical and magnetic energy emitted by natural and artificial radiation sources. Light and lightning are examples of natural radiation sources. Artificial radiation sources include various household appliances, which all generate radiation. Among them, microwave ovens and mobile phones mainly generate high-frequency radiation, while televisions, air conditioners, computers, etc. mainly generate low-frequency radiation.

So, how does electromagnetic radiation harm the human body? According to the explanation of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the mechanism by which electromagnetic radiation harms the human body is mainly through three pathways: thermal effect, non-thermal effect and cumulative effect.

Thermal effect refers to the heating of the human body caused by the current generated when the human body absorbs radio current and microwave radiation. Generally speaking, the radio waves and microwaves in the space we are in are relatively weak, and the heating caused is very small and can be completely ignored.

Non-thermal effects cause damage to the human body because there are weak electromagnetic fields in the organs and tissues of the human body. They are stable and orderly. Once they are disturbed by external electromagnetic waves, the weak electromagnetic fields in a state of equilibrium will be destroyed, and the normal circulation function of the human body will also be damaged.

The cumulative effect is that after the thermal effect and non-thermal effect act on the human body, before the damage to the human body is repaired in time, if the human body is exposed to electromagnetic radiation again, the degree of damage will accumulate.

Everything can follow the principle of "too much is as bad as too little". The reason why people worry about its radiation is mainly because of psychological fear.

As a responsible citizen, we should first have a scientific understanding of electromagnetic radiation and not let the issue of 5G base station radiation become an endless discussion. my country's "Electromagnetic Radiation Protection Standard" stipulates that the average power density limit for public electromagnetic radiation exposure for any continuous 6 minutes is 40 microwatts/square centimeter, the US and Japanese standards are less than or equal to 600 microwatts/square centimeter, and the EU standard is less than or equal to 450 microwatts/square centimeter. In terms of electromagnetic radiation, my country's standards are more than 10 times stricter than those of these developed regions.

In fact, at present, one of the more common types of radiation damage in life is sunburn, which causes more than one million people worldwide to develop skin cancer every year.

Can individuals contract 5G projects? False!

With the continuous encouragement of the national new infrastructure policy, 5G infrastructure construction is in full swing across the country, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for related companies and practitioners. It is worth noting that the period of accelerated 5G construction has also become a high incidence period for fraudsters to commit fraud in the name of engineering.

At the beginning of 2020, a company named "Sichuan Hemu Delin Construction Co., Ltd.", registered in Chengdu Hi-tech Zone, set up a project department in Guangyuan, Sichuan, and held a grand opening ceremony for the 5G project to attract people to contract the project. The regulations stipulate that the contractor must first pay a deposit of 300,000 yuan, and the company will ship the goods. The contractor is responsible for the construction, and after receiving the goods, he needs to pay a deposit of 600,000 yuan.

This is a typical case of 5G project fraud. Searching with "5G project fraud" as the keyword, the number of relevant results is shocking! It is not difficult to find out from these cases that criminals often use the banner of state-owned enterprise authorization, falsely claiming that there is a 5G base station project under construction, forging "×××5G Construction Project Department", and publishing project subcontracts. They need to find construction partners, and then defraud material procurement fees, project deposits, etc. Some criminals will actually pay the victims for the project, and then "play the long game". According to incomplete statistics, 5G project scams have occurred in more than a dozen provinces (regions and cities), including Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Anhui, Ningxia, Guangdong, and Shaanxi. Among them, a company in Ningxia defrauded 29 contractors of nearly 10 million yuan in funds, and some cases involved amounts of over 100 million yuan!

As 5G development is still in its early stages, some non-industry investors may not have a thorough understanding of this emerging industry. The information asymmetry and time lag in cognition may make them mistakenly believe that they have hit the jackpot of making money. The methods of these scams are basically to fabricate engineering projects out of thin air, and after gaining the trust of investors, they carry out fraud step by step. This kind of fraud has appeared in many other fields, but in these cases, they use the cutting-edge banner of 5G to make the fraud seem more fashionable and more deceptive.

According to reports, similar 5G base station construction scams will spawn various variants, such as scamming material procurement fees and engineering deposits. The key to the success of the scam lies in two points: first, the scammers will package the project as a project in official cooperation with central enterprises; second, in order to increase credibility, they will actually hire people to carry out sporadic construction, and then leave the unfinished project unfinished after getting the money.

In response to these fraud cases in the name of 5G construction, the three major operators and China Tower's local companies have repeatedly issued statements saying that they have not authorized third parties to carry out any work related to communication infrastructure construction, and reminded users to be vigilant against fraud that impersonates 5G base station construction.

In addition to pretending to be cooperating with state-owned enterprises and having authorization from state-owned enterprises, illegal elements will use any means necessary, even directly impersonating state-owned enterprises such as "China Tower" and "China Information and Communications Technology" to build APP platforms for illegal fundraising activities.

The police remind the public not to be greedy for "quick money". There is no such thing as a free lunch. Be vigilant and avoid being cheated. If you find the above situation, please immediately verify with the local communication management department, operator, tower company, etc. and report it to the police in time.

The first batch of 5G mobile phones were "abandoned"? False!

Recently, a debate has spread online about the inability of the first batch of 5G mobile phone users to connect to the 5G network in some areas.

The first batch of 5G mobile phones refers to mobile phones equipped with 5G single-mode chips, that is, mobile phones that only support 5G NSA (non-standalone networking) mode. Before Qualcomm released the first integrated 5G dual-mode chip, the Snapdragon 765G, at the end of 2019, 5G mobile phones equipped with Qualcomm X50 chips were all single-mode mobile phones, that is, they only supported connecting to 5G non-standalone networks.

So, why can the first batch of 5G mobile phone users only support non-independent networking mode? What is non-independent networking mode? In fact, in the early stage of 5G research and development, there was a dispute over which network construction mode, 5G NSA or SA (independent networking), was the "real 5G". 5G NSA relies on 4G network infrastructure, such as 4G core network and base stations, to build 5G networks. The advantage is cost savings and increased 5G network construction speed; while 5G SA is a completely independent construction of 5G core network and base stations, without reusing 4G network resources. The advantage is end-to-end 5G network, which can achieve higher speed and lower latency, and is conducive to the development of 5G industry applications. At the beginning of 5G commercial use, in order to save 5G investment costs and seize the 5G market, international leading operators such as South Korea and Germany chose to use 5G NSA to build networks first. At the same time, China Telecom and China Unicom also chose to use NSA networking mode to build networks first, and then gradually transition to SA networking mode.

The single-mode 5G chip (which only supports 5G non-independent networking) is released to adapt to the development of 5G networks and ensure that consumers can be the first to try 5G.

So, more than a year after 5G was commercialized in China, have the first batch of 5G users really been "abandoned"? In response to this, China Telecom and China Unicom responded immediately and there was no so-called closure of non-independent 5G networks.

A relevant person in charge of China Unicom said in an interview with the media that the so-called "China Unicom announced that it would shut down 5G NSA base stations" was a complete rumor. A relevant person in charge of China Telecom also said that in the initial stage of 5G network construction, the independent networking mode and the non-independent networking mode did coexist for a period of time, but with the advancement of technology and the improvement of the industrial chain, they will eventually transition to the independent networking mode. However, even in the 5G network with independent networking mode, it does not mean that early 5G NSA mobile phones cannot be used. More importantly, China Telecom has not shut down 5G NSA base stations.

Industry experts pointed out that the development of 5G networks is not achieved overnight. In the next few years of large-scale construction of 5G networks, 4G, 5G independent networks, and 5G non-independent networks will coexist. However, the development of 5G SA is an inevitable trend. Currently, operators have vigorously built 5G SA. At the same time, relevant departments require that mobile phones launched in 2020 must support 5G SA. Therefore, the first batch of 5G users do not need to worry too much, and users who have not yet replaced 5G mobile phones should pay attention to whether the 5G mobile phone is a dual-mode mobile phone when buying a mobile phone.

5G mobile phones are not easy to use? False!

Is 5G too expensive?

At present, 5G commercial use has entered its second year. If you log in to the official websites of major operators, you can find that the lowest 5G package fee is around 128 yuan, and various preferential activities have further lowered the entry threshold of 5G packages.

On paper, the price of 5G is indeed not low, but we might as well refer to the following set of data.

On March 1, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the development of industry and information technology. At the conference, Xiao Yaqing, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said that the unit price of 5G is 4.4 yuan/GB, a 46% decrease in two years, and will further decrease in the future.

According to the "China Broadband Tariff Level Report" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in August 2020, the average mobile data traffic tariff in my country was 4.3 yuan/GB in the second quarter of 2020.

In 2015, the second year of 4G commercial use, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China Academy of Information and Communications Technology announced that the average mobile data rate for that year was 0.076 yuan/MB. A simple conversion shows that the average rate per GB was about 77.9 yuan.

It can be seen that the current 5G tariffs in my country are not expensive. Thanks to the steady progress of speed increase and fee reduction, the cost-effectiveness of my country's mobile communications has increased year by year. However, due to network characteristics, base station power consumption and other factors, it is an indisputable fact that the cost of 5G network construction is higher than that of 4G network. However, consumers do not need to worry about bearing too much cost. Basic telecommunications operators have actively sought preferential policies such as electricity price subsidies, and the Party Central Committee has accelerated the layout of new infrastructure, with 5G becoming the highlight. This series of measures and actions will accelerate the pace of 5G construction. As the scale effect of 5G gradually emerges, the cost of use for users will definitely decrease.

5G network speed reduced?

The issue of 5G network speed "shrinking" needs to be examined from different dimensions. Since its birth, "5G is very fast" has been a consensus among the people. However, most publicity data is based on laboratory theoretical values, and even uses the millimeter wave band network speed under ideal conditions to show. In fact, my country's current 5G commercial frequency band is the Sub-6GHz band. Affected by the environment and distance, the 5G network speed does suffer from loss.

But even if the network speed is reduced, 5G is much more attractive than 4G. In mid-2020, the results of 5G network tests conducted by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in some key cities in China showed that the average downlink data rate of 5G users in my country exceeded 500Mbps. On the other hand, based on an analysis of the use of hundreds of millions of terminal devices on the networks of major US telecom operators from September to December 2020, market research company Opensignal released a report pointing out that the average 5G download speed of the three major US telecom operators was only 47Mbps~58Mbps.

Speed ​​is not all there is to 5G. The three major features of 5G - high speed, low latency, and wide connectivity - have dramatically improved human communication capabilities, ushering in a new era of extensive interconnection of all things and deep human-machine interaction. If you only focus on 5G network speed, you will miss the big picture.

5G mobile phone battery life is poor?

5G phones cannot be blamed for poor battery life. Battery life mainly depends on battery capacity and usage habits. In many 5G phone battery life tests, testers put the phone in high-power output mode to "bake the phone", causing some models to experience the embarrassing phenomenon of "battery life diabetes". This type of test focuses on the performance limit of the phone and does not meet the daily usage scenarios of ordinary users. The reference value of its test results is questionable.

The main factor affecting battery life is the battery, which is a common problem that plagues the communications industry and other industries. Compared with the development history of communications technology, the innovation speed of battery technology lags significantly. It has been nearly 30 years since Sony successfully commercialized lithium-ion batteries in 1992. In the future, if there is no major breakthrough in battery technology, battery life will still be a major bottleneck in the development of electronic devices.