The Wall Street Journal Reported that the bidding for 5G frequency rights has to date exceeded $69.8 billion. The auction run by the Federal Communications Commission could increase further before it concludes early in 2021. Every few years the FCC holds an auction in order to give the telecommunications industry an opportunity to buy additional spectrum rights for network upgrades.

 

Why is 5G important? This technology will provide a paradigm shift, a game-changer! It will revolutionize data based communication across the globe, allowing downloads 1,000 times faster than what is available with a 4G connection. 5G has the potential to enable fundamentally new applications, industries, and business models and dramatically improve the quality of life around the world because of its instantaneous connectivity. 5-G will provide new applications for mobile communications, the health industry, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and smart homes. 

 

5 G is the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular network that cellular phone companies began deploying in 2019. Analysts predict that by 2025 5G networks will have more than 1.7 billion subscribers worldwide. The advantage of 5 G is that it will provide greater bandwidth, providing higher download speeds, improved real-time responses, enhanced connectivity, and reduced latency. Latency refers to the lag time between a device pinging the network and getting a response. These features will give users the potential to experience new, innovative technologies. In brief, all human activity will be digitized. 

 

Michio Kaku, who for fifty years has been passionate about continuing Einstein’s search for a “Theory of Everything” believes that 5G has the same potential for changing the world as the printing press that led to the Renaissance. In brief, 5G will change everything and connect nearly everybody. It will break down the barriers between the rich and the poor, between cities and the countryside.

 

5G will provide access from almost everyone everywhere to the best surgeons, who can treat patients remotely in real-time. Farmers can monitor what is happening to their crops and their farm animals day-by-day, and hour-by-hour. 5 G offers the possibility for self-driving vehicles to be connected to other self-driving cars. Cars can exchange their location, speed, acceleration, direction and steering faster than we can blink. Such breakthroughs will be important lifesaving technologies. A driver will know that a truck five vehicles suddenly breaks or another car turns into your blind spot.

 

Kaku predicts that 5G will pump up the economy and the job market, making everyone more productive. Just like Uber owes their success to the improvement in data speed from 3G to 4G, 5G will raise the bar again. Kaku predicts that could be an explosion in new businesses providing services that we would never have dreamed possible.

 

We need to understand the downside risks of 5G. Chuck Bane, academic director for the University of San Diego’s online Master of Science in Cyber Security said “One of the fundamental challenges of 5G involves balancing its far-reaching potential for human progress against the significant new security risks presented by this extraordinary technological breakthrough.” 5G will enrich and empower high-speed malicious hackers, supercharging their ability to wreak untold havoc in the global cybercrime epidemic.

 

AT&T and Verizon are expected to be major purchasers. In addition, Comcast Corp could acquire 5G spectrum. Comcast introduced 5 G connectivity options for customers this past year.

 

Repeatedly I am asked whether I am bearish about the future. While I am sensitive to non-productive behavior on the part of our national leaders and fellow citizens, I remain ebullient about the long term. Currently, we face formidable challenges in the wake of Covid-19; however, the prospect of innovations such as 5G provide rational reasons for optimism. Warren Buffett spoke for all of us: “Nothing can basically stop America.”