Private 5G someday might be as common as Wi-Fi is today, the reason being that millimeter wave 5G signals will not generally be able to penetrate building walls and energy-efficient glass. But the is how long that process might take. Some think rapid adoption will happen.
Arie Barendrecht, CEO and Founder of WiredScore, for example, thinks that in two to three years there will be an expectation from tenants that their buildings will support 5G service and speeds.
One might suspect his forecast is too aggressive. Offload of phone traffic to Wi-Fi still will be available. Phones might default to 4G for voice connections. And mobile operators will have even more incentive to support voice over Wi-Fi as well.
Consider the history of Wi-Fi as a substitute for Ethernet cabled networks.
By some estimates, Wi-Fi, which was commercially introduced in September 1999, had reached adoption of about half of U.S. homes by about 2005. The other half used Ethernet cable networks.
The displacement of Ethernet cabled networks by Wi-Fi, in enterprises, took at least a decade.
Not until about 2010 or 2011 were there as many as one million public Wi-Fi hotspots globally. Some say public hotspots reached five million locations by 2013. Some argue that, by 2015, there were 70 million public Wi-Fi hotspots in operation.
That history suggests some circumspection about the pace at which most buildings will have private 5G networks.
No comments:
Post a Comment