Faster speeds are not exactly what separates 5G from 4G

The shift to 5Gwill not happen in 2018, according to analytics firm GlobalData. While many telecom network technology vendors are claiming that the wait for fifth generation, highspeed wireless service (5G) is over, the full transition will not happen in 2018. Ed Gubbins, senior telecom technology and software analyst, GlobalData, says, “There are differing perspectives over whether 5G is finally here. For vendors selling 5G gear, basically 5G has arrived. For consumers, depending on where in the world they live, it’s coming soon. But for operators—in the sense that really matters to them, namely new revenue and profit—the wait will continue.” Network equipment vendors have been promoting mobile base station gear as “pre-5G” and “5Gready”. In the first quarter of 2018, when vendors said 5G base stations would be available from later this year, the news carried more weight. This is because the industry standard groups defining 5G’s common specifications finalised the first 5G standards in December 2017, allowing vendors to bring products to market.

Gubbins says, “Some mobile operators and vendors have ‘5G’ to label residential broadband services delivered over fixed, point-to-point wireless networks to users’ homes, typically handed off to Wi-Fi within the home.” While the first big, global wave of 5G services will be aimed at consumer mobile broadband that is faster than today’s 4G, faster speeds are not exactly what separates 5G from 4G. The defining promise of 5G is to allow operators to connect people and machines with a common network, thus attaining greater efficiency and profitability than any previous generation. That depends on the development of new business cases and new market adoption that the mobile industry has not seen before.