What did 5G get right, what did it get wrong?

At roughly the mid-point of the 5G cycle (assuming 10-year generational upgrade cycles), there’s seemingly widespread criticism that it hasn’t delivered on the promises it made. That’s largely related to the massive capital spend operators undertook to acquire new spectrum and put it into service, but without attendant major new lines of revenue based off of services only 5G could deliver. The fact of the matter is, though, that 5G is a technology that lacks the agency to do, or not do, anything. At a technical level, the current generation of cellular embodies very material system-level performance and efficiency gains, and delivers new and otherwise enhanced network-enabled features. The problem is more around that operators’ business models didn’t evolve in tandem with the technology—they’re still largely selling connectivity as a commodity rather than selling industry-specific business outcomes that leverage 5G capabilities.