After years of promising major advances in wireless technology – and corresponding benefits for their investors – the COVID-19 pandemic gave carriers even more time to perfect their networks.
Just two years after U.S. carriers began using commercial 5G, the networks are still a long way from what the wireless companies promised. The best 5G experiences can be found in places meant for large audiences, such as stadiums and concert venues, which are virtually unlimited during the COVID-19 crisis. The most basic “national” 5G has wider reach but has limited advantages in speed and latency compared to 4G connections.
“There’s no doubt they didn’t bother him too much,” TECHnalysis Research president Bob O’Donnell said of the wireless carriers, though he said they could only do so much about 5G slow release. Unlike 4G networks, 5G relies on many “flavors” of spectrum, he explained. And unlike other countries, the U.S. has not made large chunks of the most practical spectrum frequencies available for purchase to date.
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This is not the result, but users may not yet understand it because they do not rely on cell connections as they would in normal times. And that could get in the way of carriers ’ability to make money from 5G, which has to push consumers to more expensive plans with unlimited data.
“We all use home WiFi more than anything,” said O’Donnell during the pandemic.
By the time people can spend more time out of the house later this year, however, the 5G networks could show some improvements as carriers upgrade infrastructure their network. Even bigger changes could come next year thanks to an emergency wireless spectrum auction decision for mid-band frequencies reaching $ 81 billion.
“The mid-band is the most important thing missing in US 5G networks,” O’Donnell said, as it will allow carriers to build networks that provide better service. more areas outside of the densely populated environments where carriers are committed to using 5G Experiences.
Improvements to U.S. 5G networks are important as device manufacturers are ramping up their efforts to bring 5G handsets to consumers. Verizon Communications Inc. VZ,
more than 20 5G devices were launched in 2020, including from Apple Inc. AAPL,
which made 5G available on its four new iPhones. The carrier expects even more 5G rollout this year, perhaps at more affordable prices – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 005930,
cut the price of its new Galaxy S21 phone by $ 200 compared to this year’s pre-generational model, helping make 5G more affordable.
See also: Apple makes iPhone 5G look like good value, which could be a big boost to the brand
With the huge costs of acquiring 5G spectrum and building network infrastructure, the carriers will have to pay more wireless revenue to pay them off. That requires a major shift towards busier consumer plans.
The companies are arguing that they are moving forward with that trend. AT&T Inc. T,
He cited the move toward endless plans as one reason for service revenue growth in the fourth quarter. And Verizon saw 55% of new customers in the fourth quarter opt for high unlimited plans, a sign that the company is “already seeing monetization happening” on their 5G investments, according to the Chief Hans Vestburg on Verizon ‘s employment call in January.
Beyond 5G capabilities, Verizon’s high-end plans include benefits such as a free year of DIS Walt Disney Co.,.
Disney + streaming service, so people’s reasons for updating are different. Determining the costs of upgrading high-end plans is difficult to determine based on the 5G benefits alone, O’Donnell said.
T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS,
it was in a better position for the 5G rollout into the auction as the company already had mid-band spectrum as a result of their recent agreement for Sprint. CEO Mike Sievert on T-Mobile’s employment call said the company is “pulling ahead of the network package,” which sets T-Mobile “to go further in. to key customers ”and drive more high-quality updates.
The diversification of 5G to cheaper devices is supported by technological side developments. Qualcomm Inc. QCOM,
has brought 5G capabilities to their Snapdragon 400 Series chips, a move that “squarely takes 5G from the top tier and is now knocking on the door of the lower tier,” Durga Malladi said , Qualcomm’s senior vice president for 4G and 5G.
“Before the holidays this year, it will be difficult to find a new non-5G phone,” said O’Donnell.
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One expected development for Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile in 2021 is 5G stand-alone growth. This approach includes infrastructure upgrades as wireless companies start using spectrum blocks for 5G only instead of splitting spectrum between 4G and 5G.
The move to standalone mode “sets the stage for new 5G-designed services,” Malladi said, as it will bring benefits in nostalgia, or weak times.
On the consumer end, lower latency could help power applications like cloud gaming, according to O’Donnell.
O’Donnell likes radio spectrum to traffic routes. To build a “true highway,” 5G, carriers can combine several pieces of frequency to achieve faster speeds, he said, something that has long been possible with 4G but is no longer possible. but with 5G. While the under-6 bandwidth spectrum may not be particularly powerful on its own, when combined with a mid-band spectrum it can enable wider “highways” and better overall coverage.
To date, carriers have relied heavily on millimeter wave spectrum and sub-6 low-bandwidth spectrum to build their networks, and both have their limitations. 5G millimeter-wave offers faster distances but is more suitable for smaller, denser spaces like stadiums because it doesn’t travel far past a cell tower. The 5G sub-6 bandwidth has allowed carriers to continue to build their “national” networks, but does not offer the same speed benefits.
“It has always been an issue with 5G that operators need to get to the right size and the right kind of spectrum,” said Peter Jarich, head of GSMA Intelligence, part of the GSM Association’s wireless trading group. “The US has been criticized for failing to do so well in some of these areas.”
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While many of the early deployment issues for 5G have become more niche, such as a better video experience in stadiums, Verizon vice president of product innovation Sanyogita Shamsunder told MarketWatch that consumers will also come see more mainstream benefits.
“The overall user experience will be different for those who use a lot of bandwidth,” she said, arguing that video calling over more conventional cellular connections. People also “start to see a different experience” in congested areas, especially when moving from place to place, according to Shamsunder.
The carriers also have opportunities to evaluate 5G on the enterprise side by selling businesses on low latency gains. Companies are using private 5G networks on their domains to better control robots and devices, and the goal is for AT&T, Verizon, and others to find new markets for 5G in areas such as manufacturing, transportation, and sales, said Marisa Vivero, IBM Corp. IBM;
vice president for strategy and offerings within the telecom space.
Business applications will be useful to carriers, according to Edward Jones analyst David Heger, because updating consumers to unrestricted plans may not be high enough to pay back the full spectrum investments of carriers .