5G Hype Simply Didn’t Deliver
We've noted for several years how the race to 5G" was largely just hype by telecoms and hardware vendors eager to sell more gear and justify high U.S. mobile data prices. While 5G does provide faster, more resilient, and lower latency networks, it's more of an evolution than a revolution.
But that's not what telecom giants like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T promised. Both routinely promised that 5G would change the way we live and work, usher forth the smart cities of tomorrow, and even revolutionize the way we treat cancer. None of those things wound up being true.
Two big claims by the wireless industry was that 5G was going to revolutionize self-driving vehicle automation and be a key player in the metaverse" (Facebook's idiotic term for all future interactive online technologies that involve virtual spaces). But again, that didn't happen either:
Specifically, metaverse proponent Meta (formerly Facebook) lost more than $700 billion in value during 2022, with shares tumbling further this week on news that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will continue investing in metaverse services into 2023. Separately, Tesla, Ford and General Motors have all notched notable setbacks in their pursuit of autonomous cars, a concept that has received an estimated $100 billion in research and development so far. One autonomous driving pioneer recently bemoaned the fact that the technology has delivered so little."
Of course, the Zuckerverse and full self driving falling on their faces weren't 5G's fault. But again, 5G was supposed to be a driving force for these evolutions, yet simply didn't deliver on any of the promises we were subjected to over the last half a decade. It didn't even fully deliver (yet) on its most basic of promises: affordable next-generation connectivity.
US 5G performance was significantly worse than most overseas deployments due to a dearth of middle-band spectrum. Less talked about (because it's a preferred outcome for the industry and the policymakers who love them) is the fact U.S. wireless data prices continue to be some of the highest in the developed world, something that only tends to increase with market consolidation.
Getting excited about innovative new technologies is one thing, but the massive chasm that continues to grow between marketing hype and reality in America is something else altogether. Unrealistic claims may drive stock valuations and Elon Musk's ego on Twitter, but it eventually puts a bad taste in the mouth of actual consumers, and in 5G's case associated the wireless standard with hype and bluster.