It likely still is too early to know whether explosive revenue growth for mobile and telco connectivity providers will be produced by internet of things use cases. A large part of the issue is that even exponential growth of IoT devices is not the same thing as direct connectivity using mobile [...]

In some ways, it is premature to evaluate the value of 5G, as the networks are still early in deployment (or non-existent) in most countries. Early in 2023, for example, only about 35 percent of humans globally had the option of buying 5G service from at least one mobile service provider. And [...]

As “nobody wants to be known as a telco anymore, so no connectivity provider wants its value proposition to be some version of “we connect you.” Increasingly, we hear calls to rebrand as something else. Just what that something else could be is a matter of significant [...]

Some now wonder why mobile network generations cannot more fully resemble the ways optical fiber transceiver development and Ethernet standards increase capacity over time. As optical transceivers moved through 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps to 100 Gbps, and Ethernet boosted speeds from 10 Mbps [...]

It is clear why infrastructure suppliers tout all the new features 5G can provide, compared to 4G: it helps such firms sell their products. It also is obvious why mobile operators tout 5G: it helps them convince regulators to commit additional spectrum (capacity) for use by mobile operators. [...]

To some extent, the mobile connectivity industry already is moving towards a “reuse rather than replace” mode for its development of next-generation networks. For example,  6G will build on 5G as 5G was built on 4G. 5G networks were designed to be compatible with 4G core networks, for example. [...]

Revenue growth is arguably the paramount strategic concern for access service providers in developed markets that are virtually completely saturated, meaning almost every person who wants to use mobile devices and networks already is a customer. And in highly-competitive markets, boosting [...]

It is not too hard to find critics who say 6G being overhyped, as was 5G. Though true, such criticism also is largely irrelevant. On either fixed or mobile networks, we see major upgrades of capacity at least every decade. For mobile operators, that coincides with the launch of a [...]

Can mobile service providers become “platforms?” Can they change their revenue models to move beyond connectivity and subscriptions? That question often is in the background of all efforts to “move up the value chain,” enter new parts of the internet ecosystem, radically change [...]

At the moment, 5G fixed wireless is the clear contributor to new revenue sources earned by 5G networks. No other use case has produced the volume of new revenue.  Revenues from 5G fixed wireless, in the near term, will dwarf internet of things, private networks, network slicing  and edge [...]

I learned early in my career making forecasts that it is better to conservative in the early going. Consider that an application of the maxim that humans tend to overestimate near-term impact of any technology and underestimate the long-term impact. “We tend to overestimate the effect of a [...]

Charlie Ergen, Dish chairman, always has believed that spectrum has business value, and should be acquired whenever possible, even if his firm had no immediate way to monetize it, and even when nobody is quite sure how monetization would happen. Many observers over the decades have quipped that [...]