How 5G wireless technology will dazzle, confuse and be of use for CIOs- Valutrics

No 5G standard, mass adoption ‘years away’

For starters, while work on 5G has been going on since at least 2012, there currently is no standard for 5G deployments, and the industry does not expect one until 2020, if that. Products being touted today are pre-standard approaches, based on what industry players can envision as the 5G standard.

Verizon’s 5G rollout in 11 cities is a case in point, said Sathya Atreyam, research manager for mobile and internet of things (IoT) infrastructure at IDC. 

“It’s not a 5G use case in the long run,” he said, but rather a “marketing exercise,” albeit an important one. Focused on areas that do not have access to high-broadband speeds, the rollout uses fixed equipment — such as 5G radio boxes, cell towers and desktop modems — not mobile devices. The trial will give customers a fast connection without digging up their yards, and, very important, it gives Verizon experience in using the power of millimeter waves to solve “last-mile” challenges — an important use case for actual 5G networks when they are rolled out, Atreyam said.

“Verizon is putting a stake in the ground,” he said. Its technology partners in the 5G Technology Forum, or 5GTF, including Ericsson and Samsung, are happy to participate. “If it works, it could eventually become the standard. Why not be there?” he said.

Ken Rehbehn, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure at 451 Research, said CIOs can think about 5G as rolling out in three phases — the pre-standard “limited experimentation” phase is based on assumptions regarding what shape and form 5G will take. These “5G-like systems” include the Verizon trials announced this week and next year’s 5G displays at the Winter Olympics in South Korea, where the country will certainly attempt to show off its 5G chops.

“I suspect we’ll see aspects of 5G that pop up for holographic displays, possibly low-latency spectator systems where you have an immersive experience for something that is going on that is not even in the venue where you’re at,” he said.