Home » Telecom Industry » 5G: Is its implementation slowing down?

5G: Is its implementation slowing down?

5G implementation slowing down

Before the COVID-19 pandemic spread all over the world, 5G was the priority to most of network operators. Now the priorities have changed, and some specialists say that the pandemic will result in delays on the construction of 5G network, while others say that it will accelerate its implementation.

Connectivity is the key for the present and future

Thanks to connectivity, it is possible for us to work and study from home, while remaining in virtual contact with colleagues, family and friends. We can have access to almost everything without leaving our houses.

With people staying more at home, service providers had to redirect their efforts to focus on the network stability, instead of the next generation technology.

That is why Eric Xu from Huawei, asks why people would need this new technology, if they are staying at home more than ever, affirming that the current crisis will cause delays on 5G rollouts.

Fitch Ratings, a credit rating agency, is looking at the industry in a long term view, assuming that when everything returns to normality, the implementation of the new technology will proceed as predicted. However, this statement is only right if we don’t consider external factors.

If employees have to remain at home due to illness, supply chain is negatively affected, engineers have to prioritize other projects and by not knowing how long the economic shutdown will last or how deep the recession will be, how would it be possible to not wait for delays?

Limitations on the current network

Although the mobile and fixed broadband networks being vital to fight the virus and its economic impact, the current network remains with limitations that 5G could help us overcome. Yes, there are lot of reasons that makes us believe that there will be a short-term delay affecting the construction of the new network, however there is other evidence that point to an acceleration of its rollout.

High speed connectivity has become essential, mostly because of the changes to the way of how we work, due to the pandemic. The rise of virtual work and digital communications is highlighting the necessity of 5G and advanced Wi-Fi adoption all over the world.

“Even before the pandemic, our research found that 61 percent of consumers thought 5G would create more opportunities to work remotely with ubiquitous access. Additionally, 35 percent believed the technology would lead to better video conferencing options.” Source: telecoms.com 

As soon as service providers can focus back their attentions to the rollout later this year, it is predicted that there will be a bigger demand for new devices and innovative services. Since the race will continue, COVID-19 probably will be the push that big players need to go ahead with the future technology that the world is expecting.

Do you think that 5G will have big delays due to the pandemic, or not? Share with us in the comments!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *