We’ve heard so many different things regarding when 5G will be available as a service and when it will be available on our devices. Yet it’s mid-2018, and we haven’t seen anything yet. A quick check of Google showed me four articles published in just the last twenty-four hours. All of them are answering what 5G is and when it will be available.
When do you think 5G will be readily available?
Our Opinion
Alex expects to wait more than a few years “to see widespread consumer adoption at the level 4G enjoys today.” He imagines we’ll start to see the first 5G devices in 2020, with the first 5G iPhone launching shortly after that.
Miguel explains that it took a while for 4G LTE to take off and be adopted throughout the world. Different countries have adopted the technology in different years than others, so when posed with the original question, he wants to know, “Where, exactly?”
Because of that, he believes “in countries without territorial and line access legislation, or any other form of absolute control over telecommunications projects, they would enjoy the 5G standard exactly when carriers smell a demand for it.” In other nations he figures it will take somewhat longer, especially being there are some who haven’t really fully adopted 4G LTE yet.
Phil cracks that he doesn’t know, but given the lag between phone upgrades, his answer is, “a year or so before I have anything capable of running it.”
Fabio reported “to make a long story short, I would say about about two years. Hopefully.”
Andrew agrees with Miguel, that it will probably depend on the country, with the “smaller countries with a more centralized approach” having more of an advantage. He used to live in South Korea and found it to be “just blanketed in high-speed Internet.” The phone company he used there rolled out a demo of 5G at the Olympics this past winter. He figures they’ll “probably see one of the first large-scale deployments just because they’ve got a pretty good infrastructure advantage.” He’d be surprised if a lot of countries got 5G before the U.S.
It seems like 5G is coming somewhat soon to services, but then it will just take a while until everyone has devices that can take advantage of that speed. Finland already has that first network. I would agree with the assessment that it will be more widespread by 2020. That gives it a full year-and-a-half. But I think what will be far more interesting will be the race to produce 5G devices.
Your Opinion
Do you have your own ideas of when 5G is going to be more widespread? Are you waiting for it? Have you resigned to knowing you won’t be one of the first to get 5G?
When do you think 5G will be readily available? Add your thoughts in the comments section below.
Laura has spent nearly 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with more than 10 of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past three decades. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.
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