Fri, Jan 8th 2021 6:35am
Karl Bode
We ve noted repeatedly how fifth-generation wireless (5G) was painfully overhyped. To spike lagging smartphone and network hardware sales, carriers, equipment makers, and the lawmakers paid to love them spent years insisting that 5G would
change the world, ushering forth amazing new cancer cures and the revolutionary smart cities of tomorrow. But while 5G is an important evolutionary step toward faster, more resilient networks, it s not some magical revolution, and US 5G speeds so far have proven to be much slower than overseas counterparts, and in many instances actually slower than 4G.
You d think industry and experts would view this as a sort of cautionary tale about hype. You d think pundits and industry would understand that by over-promising what 5G is capable of, they ve associated the branding with empty hype and bluster in the eyes of the public. You d be wrong.