Some observers suggest (in advance of any concrete information) that 5G will be expensive. While that is a possible outcome in some developing nations, it is hard to envision how that could be the case in developed nations, where mobile data costs are low, measured as a percent of income.
Prices less than $5 per gigabyte are viewed by some as “too high.” In the U.S. market, it is easy to find a supplier selling such usage at perhaps $5 to $7 per gigabyte, for just a few gigabytes per month (3 GB to 5G, for example), and bigger packages at lower prices per gigabyte.
With the caveat that developing nation prices might be higher, expressed as a percentage of income to buy the rights to use a gigabyte of mobile data, in developed markets, communications costs are pretty low, as a percentage of income.
The point is that even if there is some price premium early on for 5G mobile data, the premium is likely to be slight, and diminishing over time.
Nor, given the new spectrum resources, including huge amounts of millimeter wave spectrum, small cell architectures, modulation techniques and radios, plus use of unlicensed, shared and aggregated spectrum, are suppliers going to need to raise prices by three orders of magnitude.
No, 5G prices will not be “too high," at least in developed nations. Mobile data costs are not high; mobile costs are not high; fixed network voice and internet access are not high cost, either.
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