The dangers of over-hyping 5G

5G mania has swept the wireless industry, regulators and tech enthusiasts — but the hype may be getting ahead of the market demand for it. When 4G launched, the US wireless market still had plenty of room to grow and revenue margins were relatively high. So the telecommunication industry's promotion of 4G service was more measured and less hyped. Now the wireless market is mature and has little subscriber growth (around 1%), so telecom companies are searching for ways to bring new revenue from current subscribers. That has driven the industry to push flashy marketing campaigns to sell consumers on the benefits of 5G. The hype has played out through: an unclear business case, lack of consumer demand, enormous investment, spotty rollout, a global 5G race, and the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. "The hype is so preposterously misaligned with economic reality that inevitably there’s going to be this disastrous crash in expectations and people are going to call it a failure," said telecom researcher Craig Moffett. "In fact, it’s not a failure other than inappropriate expectations. It will actually be better than 4G, and it will be an impressive next step for the network."