Super Bowl plays out as 5G showcase
But in truth it’s a win for marketing, not tech
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – One of the interesting things about 5G is that its potential impact reaches far beyond faster mobile downloads.
Thanks to the speed of certain 5G connections, it’s being used to enable a number of different applications, including new types of experiences in public venues as well as a point-to-point wireless connection mechanism between critical pieces of equipment.
For this weekend’s big game in Miami, for example, major U.S. carriers including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint are promising the world’s first 5G Super Bowl.
The truth is it boils down to each of them deploying a number of 5G connection points to provide access to their latest network technology at a major public event.
Of course, because the total number of 5G-capable phones that have been sold to date in the U.S. is still relatively modest, the focus on 5G-specific network capabilities is somewhat limited for this year’s big game. Plus, it’s not clear that the fastest 5G connection speeds will even be available to everyone in Hard Rock Stadium because of the limited range of the millimeter wave (mmWave) flavor of 5G.
5G at sporting venues
Verizon has discussed how they’ve outfitted 13 NFL stadiums this year – including the one in Miami hosting the Super Bowl – with their speedy mmWave 5G service, but they’ve also acknowledged that the service may not be accessible from all seats in all stadiums. AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint all have mentioned some of the 5G services they’ll be making available in and around the stadium for the game, but they’ve all been more eager to describe the quality and enhancements they’ve made for their 4G LTE service for this year’s game.
The truth is, these enhancements will improve the mobile device experience for a lot more people at Super Bowl LIV than any 5G-specific ones.
These developments highlight the strategies that each of the carriers have taken when it comes to 5G. Both T-Mobile and AT&T, for example, have started to build out nationwide 5G services, but both of their efforts are based on the sub-6 GHz variant of 5G and specifically what are called the “low-band” frequencies.
What 5G gets you
The key benefit of 5G service based on these low-band, sub-6 GHz frequencies is that coverage is significantly broader and more far-reaching than mmWave-based 5G, but the speeds are also significantly slower.
U.S.-based 5G services are still very much of a split entity between mmWave and sub-6 GHz and, for now at least, they’re more of a special purpose application.
The real-world impact of 5G at this year’s big game is likely to be pretty modest. But there’s little doubt that by next year’s Super Bowl. the 5G influence will be much more strongly felt.