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The killer feature isn't throughput. Much like 2G, 3G, and 4G before it, the killer feature of 5G will be the number of low-bandwidth devices that can be connec
by wahern 8y ago
The killer feature isn't throughput. Much like 2G, 3G, and 4G before it, the killer feature of 5G will be the number of low-bandwidth devices that can be connected at extremely low cost.
Ever notice how almost all home security networks support cellular connections these days, even the lowest priced options that cost $10/month? That's 2G and 3G at work. The marginal cost to the security company is probably $0. Likewise with the Kindle--so cheap that you only pay a single upfront cost premium, largely for the hardware.
Cringley mentions the desire to supplant POTS networks, but that doesn't do justice to the market potential. Home security networks switching from POTS to cellular was an incremental improvement. The growth will come from all the various devices and services that previously weren't economically viable given installation and recurring connectivity costs. Basically, IoT, except without context IoT is a meaningless phrase.
For example, I noticed yesterday that the arcade at the movie theater switched to electronic tokens. The card dispenser had a cellular antenna, thus I assume the whole thing was completely remotely managed and probably just took a few hours to install without having to provision any local services (like a POTS line) except electricity. Vending machines, etc, are obvious [existing] growth markets, but who knows where it will go.
Anybody know who's the leading provider in this space? I've always assumed Sprint with T-Mobile in second place.
- FooHentai 8y ago>I noticed yesterday that the arcade at the movie theater switched to electronic tokens. The card dispenser had a cellular antenna, thus I assume the whole thing was completely remotely managed and probably just took a few hours to install without having to provision any local services (like a POTS line) except electricity. I used to work at a firm that made/distributed/maintained gaming machines, and that's exactly correct. It came about in a roudabout way, though. Some jurisdictions mandate active management and reporting from 'fixed-odds betting terminals' and historically that was done with POTS and overnight modem dialing. That moved across to 3G because the on-site complexity was drastically lower, but it was a slow move due to the carrier and new hardware costs. Now those costs are barely anything, and the back-end hardware is already in-place for FOBT. So it makes a lot of sense to move all the other terminals over to this system even if it's only for maintenance reporting/alerting, and not odds/configuration management. The electricity metering industry tells a nearly identical story. Now every meter might as well be a smart meter, because everything needed to achieve that has to be present anyway, it's just a case of rolling out the end customer devices.
- bsder 8y ago> the killer feature of 5G will be the number of low-bandwidth devices that can be connected at extremely low cost. We already have this. It's called NB-IoT (Narroowband IoT) and the carriers have been dragging their feet horribly. It's chicken and egg. Without a cheap, high volume, low power chipsets, user devices don't exist. Without lots of user devices, the carriers feel no pull to roll it out. Without rollout, nobody feels the need to jump in and create a cheap, high volume, low power chipset.
- plasticchris 8y agoNordic has the nrf91, which should be fairly high volume and low cost. I'm sure other companies have similar solutions in the works (TI and Silabs probably have something).
- joecool1029 8y agoT-Mobile USA has had NB-IoT commercially available for a year: https://iot.t-mobile.com/ https://iot.t-mobile.com/ EDIT: Press release from the original announcement, https://www.t-mobile.com/news/narrowband-iot https://www.t-mobile.com/news/narrowband-iot