Saturday, January 7, 2023

Less 5G Buzz? That's What Happens When it is "Just the Mobile Network"

There is a reason we shoiuld see less hype and buzz around 5G: as it becomes ubituitous it no longer is new, exciting or different. It's just mobile service. So expect less buzz.


Not even all the new uses enabled largely by "smart" features of the network are going to get as much attention.


Most retail connectivity providers (telcos, especially) prefer smart network to “dumb network” architectures. That is to say, they prefer the ability to actively manage traffic flows on their networks to maintain quality of experience, compared to most data network operators (pure internet service providers, for example) that might use architectural mechanisms to reduce latency, but mostly want the network to operate transparently, with feature creation at the edge of the network, not inside the network.


That preference for a smart network is behind the network slicing capability of 5G networks, for example, where the network itself creates the features. Others (enterprises and some data networking\service providers) can create their network features entirely from the edge, using appliances that use the network, but do not require much else than transport and capacity. 


“Smart” networks also presumably have the ability to add other features beyond “connectivity.” That helps with generating higher average revenue per account. “Transparent” or “dumb” networks cede higher functionality to edge devices and end-user-created features. 


At some point, though, even smart networks just become part of end user expectations. At some point, 5G is just “the mobile network.” It stops being new and different, and simply becomes part of the fabric of internet, data and communications usage. 


source: Statista 


For a growing number of customers and users, 5G already has nearly become synonymous with “the mobile network” and the “features of my phone.” New use cases will emerge over time, but the buzz over 5G mostly ends when it is just “the mobile network and a feature of my phone and service plan.”

No comments:

Post a Comment

Is Sora an "iPhone Moment?"

Sora is OpenAI’s new cutting-edge and possibly disruptive AI model that can generate realistic videos based on textual descriptions.  Perhap...