One of the elements that is a critical fuel for the Internet of Things is speed.
That long-awaited speed, at least from a cellular service standpoint, is 5G, as in the fifth generation of it.
Any smartphone consumer paying attention likely noticed the significant performance improvement when they moved from 3G to 4G (aka LTE).
Most estimates have 5G being in place within four years, but it is expected to start being implemented in some places before that.
Though not much implementation is anticipated next year (it’s complex, among other issues), 21% of telecommunications executives expect the first commercial rollouts to be in 2018, 30% more in 2019 and 35% more by 2020.
The overall conclusion of the study, based on a survey of 800 telecommunications industry executives conducted by Telecoms Intelligence, is that 86% expect 5G to be in place by 2020.
The deployment of 5G matters since the primary use case for it is for Internet of Things devices that impact consumers. Here’s what the execs see as some of the primary use cases for 5G:
- 43% — Consumer IoT
- 39% — Industrial Enterprise IoT
- 24% — Ultra-HD video streaming
- 18% — Autonomous vehicles
- 18% — Virtual reality
- 11% — Artificial intelligence
The mass of new smart home devices coming will require much more speed capability, especially with the anticipated number of devices to be installed in many homes. (All new home construction in Austin Texas now must include smart thermostats with either a Wi-Fi or cable internet connection).
The key is that 5G will have to work pretty much all the time to consistently delivery of content and services. Of all the major facets of 5G, the execs said 100% reliability and availability is number one.
In the case of having the biggest impact on society, most (67%) execs selected Internet of Things connectivity, followed by connected cars (50%) and virtual reality (26%).
The Internet of Things soon will be getting more of the speed it needs.
