AS promised last month, it is 7am Saturday 10 November (late again) and I am sitting at a makeshift desk on the patio of my suite in the Caribbean.
The temperature is a pleasant 25c and I have attached photographic proof for Judith, the editor, to replace my standard photograph in this December issue of Business Times if possible, hopefully cheering things up a little.
This and future articles from yours truly will endeavour to keep us up to date with the rollout of fifth generation mobile networks.
But what about handsets, I hear you ask? Well Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi looks set to launch what could be the world’s first 5G handset in early 2019 – well ahead of any 5G networks. But Sony, Samsung, LG, Huawei and Apple are also all rumoured to be in the running to be among the first to produce viable 5G phones. However, with commercial 5G networks not expected to launch until next year or even 2020 it’s unclear how much benefit can be gleaned from having a 5G phone without the network – other than the proverbial ‘I had one first’.
In the UK, EE and BT are likely to be the first networks, with roll outs planned for late 2019, while it is expected that the other networks will launch in 2020. But 3 have just announced that they are investing in excess of £2bn in preparation for 5G in an effort to launch their network in 2019 as well. The plot thickens and becomes more confusing each and every day. Let us be clear, there is no doubt that 5G technology is coming, it will offer greater speeds, capacity and coverage, as well as completely new applications and services. There is talk of 3D video calling and handsets that will project holograms – how cool is that?
All this and more is on the horizon, but so much of the information available appears to be speculation as networks and manufacturers attempt to ‘outdo’ their competitors. We shall see who is first, how well it works, how much we like it, and most importantly how much it costs, considering the huge amounts of research and development.
Anyway by the time you are reading this it will be December so I do hope my photograph cheers you up as much as the memory does me! More next month.