Peter Cochrane, a distinguished UK academic and former head of research at BT, has delivered a stinging attack on 5G in an article in the UK’s Computing Web site, describing it as “nothing like 3G or 4G … not even a product, but a collection of concepts and ideas” that “cannot possibly deliver”.
He adds: “There is no 5G standard, and indeed there never will be one; there will be at least three, focused on the EU, US and South-East Asia. These will be ‘menus of options’, ensuring incompatibility and product variance across providers.”
Cochrane sees Wi-Fi and fixed networks doing the “heavy lifting” to meet future broadband demands. “Across the western world, 3G and 4G transports about five percent of Internet traffic, Wi-Fi carries more than 55 percent, and fixed connections do the rest,” he says.
“At a modest estimate, mobile providers need 10 times more cell sites to even approach 30 percent Internet traffic transported. Why should 5G be any different? It actually needs even more infrastructure than 3G or 4G to deliver.”
He claims that “3G and 4G failed to deliver because of insufficient coverage, connectivity and bandwidth to the point where the mobile companies now give away free Wi-Fi to encourage us not to demand too much of their networks.” – Stuart Corner
