5G is almost here

5G may be closer than we thought. Most expected 5G to surface in 2020, but it turns out Verizon doesn’t want to wait that long, and is slating 2017 for initial deployment. So the race to the “fatter pipe” is on with 30-50x greater speeds and drastically reduced latency (or response times) on the line.

What’s the problem with rushing 5G to the market?

If the technology isn’t ready you’ll have egg on your face, and that isn’t easy to wipe off. If it is ready, then you will have ushered it in, and all of your customers get to join you on the VIP float, waving at all the poor folks still on 4G. Of course this makes it easier for Verizon’s competitors to get to the technology if Verizon has to use all of its infrastructure to weed out the bugs and then there’s the R&D expenses that later adopters won’t have to deal with.

Companies who adopt later do so at a much smaller cost, but they can’t bring their customers to the next level as quickly. This is why Verizon gets to charge more for its service, and if 5G deploys smoothly, it differentiates Verizon greatly from the competition, and people pay more for that sort of thing.

What does it mean for us?

It could be a really big leap forward. Think of companies like Uber that have risen only because of this sort of technology enabled it. What will 5G mean for things like driverless cars? What does it mean for operating more sophisticated machinery remotely? Well we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.