It looks like in the not too distant future we will see the debut of fifth-generation cell phone networks, or 5G.
With this next generation we will have voice and data speeds more than 10 times as fast as the current 4G mobile speeds and capable of matching fiber-optic Internet speeds.
Kiplinger expect spending on wireless infrastructure to approach $50 billion in five years, up about 40% from now. They believe that much of it will be on the software side; such as tapping very high frequencies of radio spectrum now going largely unused.
The software advances should allow carriers to make future upgrades at lower costs. 5G networks with its vastly increased capacity has the possibility of making it possible to interconnect with billions of mobile devices, smart sensors and other machines. How much more? The estimates are about 1,000 times more than today’s 4G.
This will set up a pitched battle with wired Internet services; encourage the option of “Cutting the Internet cord”.
If we are lucky this will allow for actual competition in the internet service provider front. Comcast needs a real competitor, maybe then there will be better customer service and less outage.