By design, the 5G network has been created to support sensors, servers and other data devices requiring low latency, high bandwidth. One example is the 5G network, in some configurations, being able to support data speeds in excess of 20 Gbps and supporting more than a million devices per square kilometer.
Such speeds are overkill for many sensor applications or consumer end user devices, but device density is relevant if one assumes millions of such devices could be used in relatively small areas. Lower-bandwidth use cases plausibly can use 4G or special-purpose networks.
Beyond supplying connections in many use cases where a mobile or wireless wide area network is required, 5G is intimately bound up with edge computing and the internet of things. Potentially providing a platform for new roles and value supplied by connectivity providers.
Autonomous vehicles, drones, or remote patient monitoring often are cited as use cases where 5G is necessary or advantageous. But edge computing still is “computing.” So the issue, as has been the case in prior decades, is whether connectivity providers can create enough value that they are valued participants in roles beyond connectivity.
The jury is still out on that score. Some early initiatives suggest connectivity providers might participate in real estate functions such as providing rack space, power and security at edge locations. Additional roles are conceivable, but so far at least, most of the incremental revenue gain seems to focus on connectivity.
Other revenue streams such as colocation are developing, but most of the potential upside seems to remain in the connectivity area. Edge computing is, after all, computing. So the leaders in computing have a reasonable and plausible hope of dominating edge computing as well.
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