Do you know about 5th generation network technology's problems, risks, and costs?

  

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According to "Is 5G Technology Dangerous? - Pros and Cons of 5G Network," 5^th generation networks are more difficult to install and establish.  More transmitters are demanded to surround the same space as 4^th generation networks.  Some areas have physical challenges with having a 5^th generation network such as protected historical sites that are protected because of their cultural heritage and are many times protected by the law or rough land and locations.

5^th generation networks also have security threats such as localized security.  5^th generation’s constantly changing systems have more routing points for traffic which all need to be observed to be completely secure.  Since this may be very challenging any unsecured areas can lead to other parts of the network to become damaged.  More bandwidth with 5^th generation networks will increase the demand of current monitoring.  Current networks have a certain capacity and speed which has helped providers constantly monitor security.  So with the 5^th generation networks added speed and data going through the network it will create new challenges for security teams to find solutions to to stop the new threats.

Numerous “Web of Things” appliances are created with negligible protection.  As many different devices connect to the internet such as Smart TVs, door locks, refrigerators, and even smaller devices, that opens many more possible breach points.  And with lack of security for “Web of Things” devices that creates more opportunities for network breaches and hacking.

According to "5G Security and Resilience," if 5th generation networks and equipment are not properly installed, configured, or managed, then that can lead to disruption and manipulation.  More information and communications technology will be used with 5th generation networks than previous types of wireless networks.  Companies and organizations may start to build their own 5th generation networks which can lead to more susceptibilities in the network.  The distribution chain for 5th generation networks is susceptible to malicious software and hardware, components that are fake, and bad designs.  

5G networks are very expensive.  According to "Five major challenges...," implementing 5G networks means there needs to be more hardware and software that support the network.  The insertion price for a microcell is $200,000 and for small cells the price is around $10,000 each.  In order for 5th generation networks to work properly you need to put in place 60 small cells per square mile.  Plus the cost of all of the hardware that the network needs to function correctly and the costs of maintaining and updating the network. 

 

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References-

"Is 5G Technology Dangerous? - Pros and Cons of 5G Network." Kaspersky.com, 2025, https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/threats/5g-pros-and-cons.

"5G Security and Resilience." Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, 18 May 2025, https://www.cisa.gov/topics/risk-management/5g-security-and-resilience.

"Five Major Challenges of 5G Deployment." Essentra Components, 10 Dec. 2021, https://www.essentracomponents.com/en-us/news/industries/telecoms-data/five-major-challenges-of-5g-deployment.