5G's true potential - Why analysts are missing mark on industrial digitalization

Another day, another embarrassing analyst flub. You can always tell when portentous changes are coming to the communications industry because big-name industry analyst firms start to get things entertainingly wrong. This month it’s Deloitte’s turn to wear the analyst cone of shame with its latest telecommunications industry forecast. Companies have struggled to “find large use cases that require 5G speeds and features,” said Deloitte. “That’s because things that require the speeds and low latencies 5G offers, like self-driving cars, augmented/virtual reality goggles and remote telesurgery are not expected to see broad adoption until the end of this decade, if at all.” My friends, this is some Enron-level analysis. Deloitte’s examples of 5G applications are what poker players call a “tell.” In this case, it tells me that Deloitte doesn’t know what it’s talking about. 

[Steve Saunders is a British-born communications analyst, investor and digital media entrepreneur with a career spanning decades.]