5G phones have been available for three years. Why is 5G in the United States so slow? Three major problems remain unsolved

Since the advent of 5G technology, U.S. wireless operators have been very slow in deploying 5G networks. The main reasons are the limited spectrum resources available for 5G networks, the cumbersome process of deploying 5G network equipment, and the lack of killer applications for 5G services.

The media often uses words like "fast" to describe the speed of 5G, but the speed at which the United States deploys 5G wireless networks is not fast at all.

The prospect of 5G wireless networks has dominated headlines for nearly three years, but for most Americans, 5G that truly lives up to expectations has yet to materialize.

While all major U.S. wireless carriers say their 5G services are now available nationwide, industry analysts say the so-called 5G services are not much different from 4G.

Most Americans may not be able to enjoy 5G services that will be significantly faster than current wireless communications networks until later this year, according to market research firm Evercore ISI.

“Overall, we don’t expect truly better 5G service to reach two-thirds of the U.S. population until sometime between late 2021 and late 2023 ,” said James Ratcliffe, an analyst at Evercore ISI.

The first batch of mobile phones that support 5G networks were available as early as mid-2019. Ratcliffe said that this means that in the most optimistic case, it will take 30 months for wireless operators to provide "real" 5G services covering two-thirds of the U.S. population.

In contrast, the first 4G-capable mobile phone was released in the fall of 2010, and 18 months later, the US 4G network was basically deployed.

Analysts, academics and former industry executives say a combination of factors has contributed to the relatively slow pace of 5G network deployment in the United States.

Some of these issues involve network infrastructure. The radio frequency bands that can achieve both high-speed network transmission and signal coverage are limited. In addition, the deployment of 5G networks also requires the installation of new network equipment, which is a relatively cumbersome process. In addition, many new equipment is not produced in the United States, which means that it takes longer to purchase equipment.

Industry observers also pointed out that 5G networks currently lack killer applications and cannot stimulate user demand and promote the popularization of services like mobile video did for 4G networks .

John Roese, chief technology officer at Dell Technologies and a former executive at companies including Huawei and Nortel, said that while wireless carriers have recently invested billions of dollars in 5G networks, they may not accelerate network construction until there is clarity on the revenue from 5G-related businesses.

“They’ve been burned before,” Ross said, referring to the disappointing returns on wireless carriers’ investments in 4G networks, which benefited primarily technology companies that offered apps and other services over the networks. “So wireless carriers are very cautious about that,” he said.

Limited frequency band

Currently, 5G networks mainly transmit data through low-frequency, mid-frequency and high-frequency radio waves.

High-band radio waves, also known as millimeter waves, have the highest data transmission speed and the largest bandwidth, but the smallest coverage; low-band radio waves have a wider coverage but the slowest transmission speed. Mid-band radio waves are considered to have a good balance between coverage and transmission speed.

Companies such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have said that the 5G networks they have deployed now cover more than 200 million Americans, enough to meet the needs of the entire country, but most of these networks rely on low-frequency radio waves for coverage, and the network transmission speed is limited.

Wireless operators are now focused on grabbing mid-band spectrum and have invested heavily in recent bids for mid-band spectrum resources.

But the main problem these companies face is that most of the mid-band spectrum is currently occupied by U.S. government agencies and other institutions, mainly used for military communications, weather services, etc. So far, wireless operators can only use a small part of the mid-band spectrum resources.

U.S. government agencies are also aware of the scarcity of mid-band spectrum resources. Earlier this year, the United States auctioned a total of $81 billion in mid-band licenses and plans to hold another auction this fall.

Stefan Pongratz, an analyst at market research firm Dell 'Oro Group, said that when operators prepared to deploy 5G nearly 10 years ago, the general belief was that 5G networks would mainly use high-frequency radio waves, which were basically unoccupied.

But deploying 5G networks using millimeter waves requires building more base stations, Panglaz said. Increasing the density of base station deployment will undoubtedly take time. He said it was only in recent years that the United States turned its attention to mid-band radio waves as a way to deploy 5G networks more quickly.

Where is the profit point?

The lack of a killer application is another major factor holding back 5G network deployment , said Brian Kelley, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

"It's arguably the single biggest factor that's going to spur the speed of deployment," said Kelly, a former Motorola engineer.

Craig Moffett of telecom industry research firm MoffettNathanson said the three main benefits of 5G networks are that they will transmit data much faster (100 times faster than 4G), support a large number of concurrent connections and significantly improve responsiveness between connected devices.

“There’s no revenue model that can be tied to all three of these advantages,” Moffitt said. “It’s not even clear that consumers would be willing to pay more to download videos faster.”

Moffitt said businesses are likely to be the first adopters of 5G services, given that 5G networks can seamlessly connect sensors and other IoT devices.

Enterprise use of 5G services will likely come in the form of deploying private 5G networks, he said, which “can be thought of as the next generation of Wi-Fi wireless networks that are faster, more secure and can connect more devices.”

But the question, Moffitt said, is "should wireless carriers build private 5G networks for enterprise use, or should enterprises build them themselves?"

He said this is important because if companies choose to deploy their own private 5G networks, wireless carriers may lose related revenue and be unable to invest more in 5G infrastructure.

Equipment issues

Ideally, 5G networks will be very different from 4G, in part because they will need to transmit data at higher frequencies. This means that upgrading 5G networks will require different technologies and equipment.

Installing new equipment may require finding a suitable site, obtaining the proper permits and, in some cases, digging up roads to lay fiber optic cables to transmit data at high speeds between base stations, Evercore's Ratcliffe said.

Edward Gazzola, chief executive of Atlanta-based infrastructure firm Bennett & Pless, said the heavy construction work needed to bring wireless communications networks up to 5G standards is not expected to ramp up until 2022.

He said the pandemic and technical obstacles have caused continuous delays in progress, such as wireless operators needing to wait for the latest engineering standards to be introduced before purchasing new equipment.

Equipment availability is also a common problem for wireless operators. When 4G first launched around 2010, there were about a dozen technology vendors offering wireless network equipment, including Canada's Nortel and the United States' Motorola, Dell's Ross said.

Today, there are only five major companies in the global network equipment supplier market: Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, ZTE and Huawei.

“Two are in China. One is in Finland, one is in Sweden and one is in South Korea,” he said, adding that all of the suppliers are outside the United States.

To make matters worse, 5G network equipment requires computer chips, and the chip industry has recently been grappling with supply shortages.

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