Carriers Haven't Nailed Down What 5G Really Means, Schurz CTO Says

The definition “continues to change,” Williams said: Is it millimeter-wave or the citizens broadband radio service, 5 GHz or C band? “We just don’t know,” he said. “There’s been a lot of hype and momentum … but we’re still not sure what it is.” Some carriers are promoting 5G when offering enhanced 4G, and that’s “not necessarily the right thing,” he said.

Chris Bastian, Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers chief technology officer, agreed details are “fluctuating a great deal,” but he sees a common vision for 5G. It promises “greater energy efficiency in both devices and the network, greater reliability, greater security,” he said, though “the devil is in the details." Cable has been deploying Wi-Fi for a long time and is looking at more fixed wireless, Bastian said. “5G presents an opportunity,” he said: “There will be head-to-head competition for obtaining paying customers.” Bastian sees 5G as a “frenemy” for cable: “We’ll benefit from each other.”

Schurz is deploying fixed wireless and expects the most competition from 5G in rural and unserved markets, Williams said. In urban areas, “physics just doesn’t allow a wireless service to be as fast and reliable as a wired service,” he said: “I just don’t see that as competition.” Another benefit for Schurz is carriers will need the company’s fiber in some markets to supply reliable bandwidth for all the small cells they’re building, he said.

Williams is monitoring 5G closely. “I’m seeing what’s happening with handsets. I’m seeing what happens with some of these 5G deployments.” He isn’t worried: “It’s going to be very cost prohibitive in the near future to come into the areas that I serve."

COVID-19 is giving 5G a boost, said Mishka Dehghan, T-Mobile vice president-strategy, product and solutions engineering. “Strong connectivity has now really become essential in everything we do, not only in our work environment but in our home environments. It has become the new normal." Businesses formerly “on the fence” about adopting mobility in all their applications are no longer undecided, she said.

T-Mobile already covers 1.3 million square miles in 50 states with 5G, including rural and suburban markets, Dehghan said. Changes at the edge and private networks are now seen “as the first enabling platforms that will leverage the changes that 5G is bringing,” she said.

Focus more on “use places” than actual uses, advised Peter Linder, Ericsson head-5G marketing, North America. “It’s the use places where we unlock significant business value,” he said. “It can be small -- in a stadium, a manufacturing plant, a warehouse or a port,” he said: “You don’t need to build blanket coverage like with a network.” Two years ago, the focus was on “all the cool things” that could be done with 5G, he said. With the pandemic, “we’re starting to see more concrete things, actually things we can improve straight away,” he said.

Businesses have been moving toward digitalization for years, but “today, the environment that we’re living in, we’re seeing accelerated demand,” said Masum Mir, Cisco vice president-product management, mobility and automation. “It’s becoming necessary to go into the digital world faster, connecting the unconnected faster, and more importantly doing it in a more affordable way,” he said: As regulators worldwide make more spectrum available, providers are rolling out better service.

Business customers demand that 5G operate seamlessly with their wireline and local area networks and other technology, Mir said. “We have to make it simpler to consumers, simpler to operate, and it has to be cost effective and secure,” he said. 5G is more than just a faster connection, he said.