5G roadblock: labor

Wed Jan 1 14:22:32 UTC 2020

This thread has devolved into "Why 5G"?

A lot of folks are missing the bigger picture.

5G is not for better voice calls.  AFAICT, it won't help voice at all.

5G is not for better integration with WiFi or IP data.  5G is to
*replace* WiFi, and FTTH, and ISPs, and WISPs, and bring all data back to
the telco.  ATT really misses owning the network monopoly.

5G is also about upstaging Amazon and Google and other data center
providers.  Read up on "Edge Computing".  The "edge" isn't in your network
or your customers' internal networks.  The edge is a telco data center.

That's what they mean by "reducing latency": moving your data processing
into a telco data center means it is topologically closer to a cell tower.

5G is mostly about getting more unregulated data-related fees.

---

History lesson:

When I designed CDMA IS-99 (circa 1993-95), IP data was sent over the
Operations and Management (O&M) interface.  You could do voice
simultaneous with data.

Every original CDMA cell tower had an IP router in it.  Our initial
implementation significantly out-performed ATT's CDPD.

I'm also the original author of Mobile IP, and the first implementer.
IS-99 gave easy and fast IP roaming between interconnected cell towers.

Turns out, the big telcos didn't like this model.  In fact, they really
didn't like a distributed traffic model at all.  They wanted to centralize
and monetize access to data, which they viewed as a value-added service,
because they could bypass regulators and charge whatever the market could
bear.  Voice was regulated.  Data was not.  More money was to be made.

Same issues, 25 years later....