Above: Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis
By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
The post-truth world of 5G has arrived – also as far as tech media, marketing, and not least politics are concerned. Fortunately, there are still a few analysts who painstakingly maintain independence. One of the best is Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis. We asked Dean to explain the many ways 5G and Wi-Fi are being confused – in many cases deliberately – to serve one political agenda or other.
Confused about 5G and Wi-Fi? Where does one technology fit into the other if at all? If the 5G world were not misleading enough as it stands, add a couple of scoops of Wi-Fi into the mix and voilá – ultimate perplexity. To cut through this Gordian Knot we asked renowned analyst Dean Bubley to explain what’s really going on. So here are the four ways 5G is trying to rope Wi-Fi into its fold:
Myth #1: ‘5G will kill Wi-Fi’
[Yawn] We’ve heard this so many times and – as Dean says – there are umpteen reasons why no cellular tech that we know of will kill off Wi-Fi. If you want all the details read Dean’s excellent blog on the topic here. “There are so many reasons, and my list is not even exhaustive. But also think of simple things that Wi-Fi supports that – to my knowledge – cellular small cells will never have, such as Power Over Ethernet (PoE). Such practical details are indispensable for indoor wireless,” says Dean.
Myth #2: ‘5G networks will include Wi-Fi’ (in an umbrella-like manner)
Well – maybe, says Dean. “The idea that 5G will include support for all manner of access networks including Wi-Fi is a common one among 5G proponents, and actually it’s not a bad idea. On the other hand it’s hard to find any concrete evidence that standardisation work to this end is happening. If it happens, it’s only likely to happen many years from now,” says Dean.
“Also remember that even if mobile carriers in the end choose to include Wi-Fi as part of a wider 5G wireless service, the carrier Wi-Fi use case only represents a small fraction of the total Wi-Fi market, which is dominated by residential and enterprise use cases,” Dean says.
We also wrote our own analysis of how Wi-Fi fits into the 5G world or not here.
Myth #3: ‘Wi-Fi is already 5G’ – so no need to worry
Dean says this narrative is an emerging story based on the fact that the 5G denomination is officially defined not by the 3GPP but by the ITU and is more properly called IMT2020. Some – including the Wireless Broadband Alliance – claim that the new Wi-Fi standard 802.11ax actually fits the ITU’s formal 5G criteria for certain use cases, most notably indoors. It follows that 802.11ax could still classify as a (but not the only) 5G technology, says Dean.
What benefit the 802.11ax standard and the Wi-Fi industry in general would receive from being classified as a 5G technology is still not entirely clear.
Myth #4: ‘Let’s call this 5G’ (even though it’s mostly Wi-Fi)
This is perhaps the most grievous misrepresentation of both 5G and Wi-Fi. “Various Wi-Fi projects are being called 5G for political, PR, or funding reasons. This is blatant nonsense, but some are gullible enough to believe it often in return for money or attention,” says Dean Bubley.
There are – unfortunately – plenty of examples of this. We chronicled one of the most obvious committed by Telstra earlier this year. Also Verizon’s recent 5G launch arguably also contains a lot of Wi-Fi and very little if any 5G. And it is our best guess that we’ve only seen the beginnings of this with operators all over the world under increasing pressure to launch something with a 5G label on it.
Don’t miss Dean Bubley at Wi-Fi NOW Europe in Berlin on November 6-8! View the program here.
/Claus.