Wired and Wireless ISPs on a Gb Race
Gigabits per second is the new business rave for ISPs. Both wired and wireless are on a race. Whoever delivers first covering a wide scale with the most profitable investment could win the industry over. And there might be a fat chance 5G can succeed, if the price is right.
One beautiful promise of the gigabit race is that the technologies are available. It's really all about deployment and implementation now. Wired ISPs with fiber optics and cable infrastructures have been doing so for how many years now. The growth is slow and expensive. Despite being firsts, actual availability is still regional and far from national.
Wireless is catching up with 5G which can easily go national, much faster than wired ISPs can deliver. Forecasts shows 5G offerings starting by the end of this year or early next year. If they go ahead of smartphone adoption, the first possible market would be via hotspots, which can be huge all by itself.
For homes and businesses where wired Gb services are not available, but where wireless signals are very good, Gb hotspots can replace wired modem/routers. Yes, that's right! I used the word "replace". This means that wired ISPs would have 5G as their biggest competitor where it hurts, potentially driving wired home and business customers to switch to 5G instead for their Internet access.
Thus, if wired ISPs remain at their current pace in building the national Gb network, it is more likely that 5G would take over, which can take wireless hotspot devices to new business venture heights with it, likewise threatening the modem/router industry... if not redefining it.
So if you are in the business of venturing through these opportunities, and creating a new wireless network is not an option, consider investing on 5G hotspots that can replace home/business modems/routers.
The deal breaker in the first few years though would be the price. How much will 5G providers charge? Likewise, how much will 5G hotspot manufacturers charge? If priced too high, potential market adoption and growth will be slow, which can give wired ISPs time to catch up and pump up their Gb deployment efforts. However, if 5G offerings and the devices that support them are priced aggressively (or at least reasonably) for fast mainstream adoption, we can be looking at what can possibly become a wired ISP mass extinction event.
Keeping an eye on how quickly this can develop in the next couple of years is crucial. If 5G goes ahead in targeting the home and business market first, note that smartphones and other wireless devices should follow soon after... and very quickly. It is quite possible that the 5G business would explode to unprecedented heights as early as 2020.
So what's the challenge? Wired ISPs should invest more to increase Gb coverage as fast as they can possible. At the same time, wireless ISPs should offer 5G with reasonable pricing targeting homes and businesses as early as possible. The competition between wired and wireless should be kept alive. Wired ISPs can still have a few more decades to keep themselves profitable. But the future is wireless. And 5G can become the defining technology that will make it happen.
One beautiful promise of the gigabit race is that the technologies are available. It's really all about deployment and implementation now. Wired ISPs with fiber optics and cable infrastructures have been doing so for how many years now. The growth is slow and expensive. Despite being firsts, actual availability is still regional and far from national.
Wireless is catching up with 5G which can easily go national, much faster than wired ISPs can deliver. Forecasts shows 5G offerings starting by the end of this year or early next year. If they go ahead of smartphone adoption, the first possible market would be via hotspots, which can be huge all by itself.
For homes and businesses where wired Gb services are not available, but where wireless signals are very good, Gb hotspots can replace wired modem/routers. Yes, that's right! I used the word "replace". This means that wired ISPs would have 5G as their biggest competitor where it hurts, potentially driving wired home and business customers to switch to 5G instead for their Internet access.
Thus, if wired ISPs remain at their current pace in building the national Gb network, it is more likely that 5G would take over, which can take wireless hotspot devices to new business venture heights with it, likewise threatening the modem/router industry... if not redefining it.
So if you are in the business of venturing through these opportunities, and creating a new wireless network is not an option, consider investing on 5G hotspots that can replace home/business modems/routers.
The deal breaker in the first few years though would be the price. How much will 5G providers charge? Likewise, how much will 5G hotspot manufacturers charge? If priced too high, potential market adoption and growth will be slow, which can give wired ISPs time to catch up and pump up their Gb deployment efforts. However, if 5G offerings and the devices that support them are priced aggressively (or at least reasonably) for fast mainstream adoption, we can be looking at what can possibly become a wired ISP mass extinction event.
Keeping an eye on how quickly this can develop in the next couple of years is crucial. If 5G goes ahead in targeting the home and business market first, note that smartphones and other wireless devices should follow soon after... and very quickly. It is quite possible that the 5G business would explode to unprecedented heights as early as 2020.
So what's the challenge? Wired ISPs should invest more to increase Gb coverage as fast as they can possible. At the same time, wireless ISPs should offer 5G with reasonable pricing targeting homes and businesses as early as possible. The competition between wired and wireless should be kept alive. Wired ISPs can still have a few more decades to keep themselves profitable. But the future is wireless. And 5G can become the defining technology that will make it happen.
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