5G Use to Explode in 2018

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 8:39AM EST · Published Aug 30, 6:20AM EDT

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5G Use to Explode in 2018 — © Thinkstock

Ultra-fast wireless connections, hard to imagine just years ago, will start to be widely deployed soon, particularly in South Korea and Japan. Known as 5G, these networks will start to replace currently deployed 4G networks. The upgrade will change how people can use mobile devices because the connection speed will be as fast as the fastest broadband most people can buy.

According to TrendForce:

Compared with the 4G mobile networking standard, 5G offers faster data transfer, greater wireless area coverage and lower latency. According to market intelligence firm TrendForce, major vertical markets such as manufacturing, transportation and healthcare will rapidly adopt 5G in addition to the consumer market. For mobile network operators, their traditional telephony and data services are bringing less average revenue per user than before. Thus, upgrading to 5G will help diversify and expand their revenue base.

At least in the American market, where large deployments will happen after 2018, wireless subscription levels have peaked and much of the competition among the large carriers is based on price. This has made the businesses less attractive financially. Price wars to pick up market share show no sign of disappearing. These have been particularly evident in the ongoing changes to price and service packages from leaders Verizon and AT&T.

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Among the possible victims of 5G are wired connections to the home, made primarily via cable and fiber. If services like broadband and high-definition TV programs can be sent and received via wireless, these other services could become obsolete. The decades-old business model of cable TV could be disrupted. It is already in trouble because people are “cutting their cords” to watch shows via broadband and not cable TV program packages. Cable firms like Comcast already face growing battles against the trend.

Another large change the rollout of 5G could cause is the bids for spectrum needed to supply the service. According to PC World, this process has begun:

A U.S. Federal Communications auction of repurposed television spectrum has raised US$19.8 billion and will pave the way for mobile carriers to offer faster and more reliable service across the country.

The 70MHz in new spectrum available will allow carriers to provide fast 5G service in coming years, FCC officials have said. It was the world’s first two-sided auction allowing TV stations to indirectly sell spectrum to mobile carriers and other users of wireless spectrum.

5G will radically change how broadband can be used by consumers and businesses.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.