The new marketing buzzword across media platforms is “5G”. With the growth of the telecom sector over the past decade, the general public has come to expect innovation as inevitable, and thus 5G has become the presumed future of the industry.
But not so fast, said Peter White, Principal Analyst and Founder at Rethink Technology Research.
In a recent article, the research company made its case on why 5G “is in danger of never happening or… not happening in the manner and timescale that we are being told.”
Chief among these reasons include the sheer complexity of 5G technology, the deployment issues that are certain to arise during its rollout and the commodification of the handset phone, which the report posits will slow innovation.
“The handset is set to join the microwave, electric cookers, cars, and personal computers, as things society already knows how to do, but now want on the cheap,” the report states.
The report estimates that less than 1% of “only very advanced territories” will have built out 5G coverage by 2020. Furthermore, carriers can rely on its LTE coverage for the foreseeable future, which 5G will complement. 5G was “never meant to be a root and branch upgrade,” and thus carriers will take their time deploying it, argues the report.
“Never before in the history of telecoms has a technology been put forward to solve so many problems at once, without anyone being clear on who will pay for what, in what timeframe. The uncertainty is possible.” To read the full report, please click here.
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