When it wasn’t overshadowed by the covid renaissance, CES has served in part as the big 5G gathering for the past few years.But with cars, smart home standards and so Many screens took center stage at this year’s show, with 5G taking a backseat.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg gave very similar keynotes in 2019 and 2021, showing off all the possibilities of 5G: remote surgery, self-driving cars, augmented reality, and more. T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert is scheduled to deliver the 2022 keynote address before the omicron is discontinued. But in 2023, 5G will hardly be a footnote on speaker rosters.
Why? Our promise of 5G doesn’t seem to be fully realized. I don’t recall ever riding in a fully self-driving vehicle to undergo my robotic surgery. At best, what we have now is the slightly faster 4G version. So why did the mobilization meeting stop?
First off, we’re all sick of hearing about it. CES has a unique way of rallying around a technology one year and then ditching it the next. (How’s your 3D home theater? Exactly.) And there’s always a time limit to the newsworthiness of 5G — at some point, it won’t be “the new 5G thing” when it becomes a popular wireless technology ; it’s just “Internet for when you’re not on Wi-Fi”.
It’s no longer a niche new service; it’s the default option
Compared to any of the above, the days of wireless CEOs thinking they need to sell 5G to the public (and, of course, their shareholders) are over. It’s no longer a niche new service; it’s the default option (at least in the US). Basically every new phone that hits their shelves is 5G compatible, and all major carriers in most of the US are finally supporting mid-band 5G.Next time you walk into a wireless store to buy a new phone or sign up for a new service, you’ll be hard-pressed to leave No 5G devices and plans, whether you really want them or not.
So now we have 5G phones in our hands, 5G networks are here, and … not much has changed. Maybe web pages load faster — hardly robotic surgery. What gives? The thing is, rolling out 5G is a long-term ongoing process. The hype made it seem like all good stuff was just around the corner, but let’s be honest, it has been (and still is) year after year.
We’re only now entering a phase of 5G development where the industry moves beyond mobile broadband improvements (all the talk about superfast wireless data, you hear disgusting ads all the time) and focuses more on things like self-driving cars, augmented reality, and Scaling the Internet of Things in Smart Cities and Industry. You know, all the things that we promise 5G will do. According to several networking executives I spoke to in late 2022, bringing network capabilities closer to end users will play a big role in unlocking these new capabilities.
Igal Elbaz, senior vice president of network services at AT&T, said, “When a new wireless network comes out, there is a series of events. You need to build the network. You need enough people to have 5G equipment. The nuance of 5G is that if You really want to take advantage of all the capabilities, and there’s also the concept of the edge.” With the lower latencies offered by 5G and edge computing — the shorter distances between connected devices and the cloud — the potential for immersive experiences is greater, he said. Big. The next phase of 5G is setting that phase.
But even with network capabilities, building an ecosystem to leverage them will take time. Srini Kalapala, Verizon’s senior vice president of technology and product development, described the challenge: “In the automotive space, there’s a lot of talk about 5G enabling cars to talk to each other, cars and pedestrians to coexist in a given environment. But it’s an ecosystem; Just one car and one customer on the road won’t work. You have to get everyone [on board]”
So yes, you may have a 5G icon on your phone, but the supposedly most transformative aspects of 5G are still afoot. That’s a tough message to convey in a flashy keynote, especially when everyone in the room has access to the technology you’re talking about.
That’s probably why we didn’t get another big 5G sales pitch at CES 2023, but the technology isn’t entirely useless. Honda and Sony have unveiled a prototype self-driving car packed with sensors that require 5G to communicate. TCL is using Qualcomm’s XR2 5G chip to develop VR and AR headsets, readying the two technologies to become mainstream. 5G is still working — and this time it’s just taking a backseat. Which is fine because I, for one, are tired of pitching.
But if you miss the Wireless Technology Rally, don’t worry. You’ll be hearing about 6G soon.