Representatives from the business divisions for Verizon and Sprint gave attendees their company views on how 5G will transform the B2B world Wednesday at GSMA MWC19 Los Angeles. They both say the telecoms are ready for change, and preparing for disruption.
“Huge trends” are on the horizon, that “we believe will transform your business that are not yet well understood,” emphasized Verizon Business EVP/Group CEO Tami Erwin.
“It’s clear to us 5G will fundamentally change businesses’ digital transformation journeys. It will give companies new tools and enable them to gain efficiencies in their operations,” she said. “It’s not just another G…It’s not a sequel to 4G,” but a “whole new technology,” explained Erwin.
5G enables greater operational efficiency such as industrial IoT and smart product tracking. That’s because the new technology will enable a data throughput of up to 10 gigabits-per-second, according to the Verizon executive. “5G can handle 100 times larger data volume compared to 4G. Today’s 4G networks have an average latency of about 80 milliseconds. 5G [latency] will be under 10 milliseconds,” said Erwin. Finally, “5G energy consumption is expected to be only 10 percent of what we see today.”
Sprint Business President Jan Geldmacher tackled the big issue for the company right off the bat – the proposed transaction with T-Mobile. “The merger is progressing. We have come a long way,” he said, detailing regulatory approvals with conditions from both the Department of Justice and the FCC. But, he acknowledged the deal is not final because about 16 states oppose it. “We are expecting [them to file] a lawsuit on December 9,” in federal court, said Geldmacher.
“Only the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint will truly deliver nationwide coverage” for 5G, he said. “You need to bring 5G across the entire nation. Rural America deserves to be connected.”
Rural connectivity is “something the merger will deliver, by combining the very rich spectrum holdings,” [600 MHz for T-Mobile and 2.5 GHz for Sprint], explained Geldmacher. “That combination of spectrum will [help] make us deliver 5G in a very short period of time.”
Concerning 5G hardware, Geldmacher said Sprint is mindful the gaming industry is worth about $30 billion in the U.S. today. That’s why Sprint has spent a lot of time making sure the gaming experience is good on its smartphones and will continue to do that for 5G. The average player age is 33. In the U.S, 50 percent of smartphone households play video games on their phones, he added.
October 24, 2019
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