History shows that as we adopt new technologies and new ways of working, dramatic change soon follows. When private and commercial users embrace the latest tech trends, prices typically fall and adoption becomes far more affordable.
Consider steam power: the falling cost of coal helped trigger the Industrial Revolution. Advances in printing cut the price of books and pamphlets, fueling the Age of Enlightenment. More recently, silicon technology drove down the cost of memory by orders of magnitude, enabling the internet revolution—processing power continued to improve rapidly, roughly halving cost or doubling capability every 18 months. Could 5G be the next catalyst for a major step in human progress? It’s a plausible outcome.
The telecommunications industry has experienced extraordinary productivity gains alongside large cost efficiencies. Between 2010 and 2015, the cost of transmitting data dropped by around 91%. When placed in the same social and historical context as the examples above, that reduction in cost is likely to drive substantial innovation and stimulate the global economy. Over the last decade, smartphones already disrupted music, entertainment, food and travel; the mass rollout of 5G promises another wave of change that could transform industrial productivity and everyday life.
Lower data costs have produced dramatic increases in consumer data allowances. Users now enjoy much greater access to voice, video and online services. Compare a £25 mobile plan from 2008 to one in 2018: in 2008 that price typically bought roughly 500MB of data; by 2018 the average plan around that price offered about 20GB—a roughly 3,900% increase. Even accounting for larger web pages and higher video bitrates, the improvement in value and capability is striking.
The rise in data use hasn’t only affected technology companies. Luxury European fashion brands, for example, have benefited from the surge in social media consumption, which strongly influences spending habits and reshapes consumer behavior. The free flow of affordable information has also allowed companies that were once regionally focused—particularly in China—to compete globally. Groups such as Alibaba and Tencent have advanced rapidly in recent years, moving closer to parity with major U.S. players like Amazon. It’s difficult to imagine firms such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon achieving their current scale without the broad availability of inexpensive data.
Affordable data has enabled the widespread use of analytics, which can transform sectors from manufacturing and transportation to energy management and public health. Cheap connectivity and 5G have accelerated growth in the Internet of Things (IoT)—supporting developments from autonomous vehicles to remote diagnostics and health monitoring. These real-time services are still in the early stages but hold vast potential. While smart cities and other large-scale applications may take time to fully materialize, the possibilities opened by next-generation mobile networks and expanded data capacity are extensive.
Not every industry benefits equally. Telecom providers themselves have been disrupted as consumer attention shifts toward tech companies that now dominate services once owned by traditional carriers. That shift is understandable when the average U.S. adult now consumes roughly 11 hours of media daily across live TV, computers, smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles.
Although 5G testing and deployment have occupied headlines for some time, the transition is proceeding faster than many realize. The twentieth-century patterns of communication, education, work and governance are already changing. Current and older methods of working are quickly becoming obsolete, driven in large part by rapid advances in mobile technology and the dramatic fall in data transmission costs. Some call these cascading effects a “butterfly effect”; whatever the term, the non-linear impact of expanding data capacity and analytics will likely prompt a major rethink in our technological evolution—producing social and industrial consequences that will shape generations.
For the first time in history, young students carry the sum of human knowledge in their pockets even as they learn algebra and long division in the classroom. Are we witnessing the dawn of a new technological era? The signs suggest we are.
Interested in hearing industry leaders discuss topics like these? Attend co-located events such as the 5G Expo, IoT Tech Expo, Blockchain Expo, AI & Big Data Expo, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo World Series, which host conferences in locations including Silicon Valley, London and Amsterdam.