Military communications at the tactical edge always struggle to obtain the bandwidth they need, particularly for the most demanding applications such as real time transmission of high definition video. The current generation of serving soldiers, and even more so the upcoming generation from whom militaries seek to recruit, have grown up with mobile phones, smartphone and tablets with constant high bandwidth connectivity. They are digital natives who can make the most of these technologies and often find creative ways of using them unanticipated by their inventors and developers, so armed forces want to make their tactical communication systems feel, work and behave as much like the smart devices their soldiers are used to using. These have been key drivers behind military adoption of 3G and 4G/4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular communications technologies and their keenly anticipated take up of emerging 5G (fifth generation) systems, the first commercial applications of which are due to roll out this year, which as well as greater capacity also promises greater speed and security.
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