In 2019, hype meets reality for 5G devices and services. After several years of discussions on use cases and exotic technologies, “real” 5G products will start to scale on 3GPP Release 15 5G NR networks. On the use-case front, the focus will be on enhanced mobile broadband (eMMB) with both fixed and mobile 5G wireless services becoming available to more consumers. The much talked-about ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) corner of the 5G use-case triangle will continue to aspire to deliver unique capability as 3GPP Release 16 marches along toward adoption.
5G in 2019 is all about delivering a bigger, fatter data pipe for our mobile devices, as the insatiable consumption of data (primarily driven by video) is predicted to grow by a factor of nearly seven times between now and 20241. While 5G is casually talked about as a specific technology, and of course it does have a technology component, we should not forget that 5G was originally conceived as a harmonious interworking of multiple technologies forming a configurable network. A crucial component to this is 4G LTE, which provides the anchoring launch point for 3GPP 5G non-standalone (NSA) networks. Additionally, Wi-Fi will be the primary method in which many users will directly interact with 5G in 2019. Some initial deployments of 5G require a “technology translator” to convert 5G signals to something that our existing devices can use… hello Wi-Fi!