5G roadblock: labor

Fri Jan 3 08:45:27 UTC 2020

On 1/Jan/20 08:30, Mark Milhollan wrote:

>  
>
> Actually you went on to say that future innovations shouldn't exist
> because that's just crass consumerism, and that we should be satisfied
> with (in particular) HDMI instead of desiring better -- sorry, people
> will want better, e.g., the realism of 4k, 8k and 16k which the
> devices and networks of today either cannot provide (that HDMI
> flatscreen display probably cannot handle even 4k much less 8k+) or
> would struggle to provide (carrying 25+ Mb/s to dozens or hundreds of
> nodes -- remember even pico cells server multiple nodes).
>
> Video to tablets and phones/phablets are indeed a major use case, for
> the majority not you or I -- you don't want high bandwidth video
> calling yet others might, i.e., Facetime is quite the thing and
> perhaps in 2 years with enough bandwidth available those holographic
> calls would be too.  Even I might change my mind if my customers began
> demanding high-fidelity video conferencing even while mobile.

I don't think anyone argues that advancing the state-of-the-art makes
sense. It's just that the issue is at what cost, particularly if today's
technologies are relatively well deployed, well understood, are up to
the task and are affordable?

Fibre has been around a long time, but it wasn't affordable to run to
the home until technologies such as PON and bi-di optics. Electric
vehicles have been around a long time, but it wasn't affordable to own
one until there were significant advancements in battery storage and
hybrid technology. Studios have had HD video capability for years, but
it's been trickling into the consumer space years later. MPLS has been
around for ages, but it's only in the last 6 or so years that it's been
affordable to run it all the way into the Access.

No one argues that 5G will move the industry forward, but at what cost
if deployed right now? Moreover, 4G/LTE isn't struggling, wi-fi has made
leaps and bounds now with 802.11ax, and there is more fibre into
businesses and homes than when we had 2G and 3G. So while no one argues
that the case for 5G is there, it's just a bit harder to make when you
look at the entire picture as things stand on this 3rd day of 2020.

Mark.