We're number... six. Analysis puts UK behind Switzerland and Kuwait in 5G adoption A new report has put the UK sixth globally for 5G adoption – behind the usual heavyweights of South Korea and Switzerland, as well as the US, Kuwait, and Qatar. Research firm OMDIA's 5G Market Progress Assessment report ranks nations based on five criteria: the amount of spectrum available; commercial operator launches; the …
The industry came up with the moniker "5G" largely for marketing purposes. In many situations and for most users, there will be little difference between 4 and 5G in both good and bad ways: can't get a good 4G signal? 5G probably won't improve matters, either.
Sweden, home of Ericsson, doesn't even feature in the analyst's list of the top 22 nations for 5G.
Why would that surprise anyone? 5G makes most sense in areas with high population density, hardly a problem for Sweden outside the large cities and even there, the density of devices hardly approaches that of east Asia.
Agree wholly with your remarks (WW).
Its pure marketing gimmick. The launches so far is so limited and patchy (one street per city or postage stampe sized playing area in a nondescript town), its not worth the hype.
And of course, all the paid up spectrum lying waste, since no one has invested and upgraded their networks (more masts and Antennae) to make 5G viable. And of course, the corporate greed. WHy is the hardware ( phones and routers) so expensive?
FFS, its only another microchip that supports the extra frequency bands and faster throughput. Yet they make it out as if its gonna be better than mama's milk, and wipe my bottom every morning !
"Sweden, home of Ericsson, doesn't even feature in the analyst's list ".
Personally I don't miss 5G and I don't think I will spend any money on it in years if it's up to me.
One possibility here is, of course, that Sweden was not in that analysis at all, what ever, but Finland is even less densely populated than Sweden so there must be a better reason than that.
My first though was this... https://youtu.be/MLYdFSaE4tk
I have fond memories of running into Bruce Dickinson when I was 14. He was very nice to me even though I was unable to mumble more than a few words :)
I find it interesting that the UK government while bending to pressure from the US to drop Huawei because of alleged security fears that are so far unproven, is possibly in talks with another potential 5G supplier Samsung,with a history of corruption and dodgy dealings.
Samsung also has large manufacturing plants in China, so the only large difference between the two other than country of origin is that Samsung already enjoys a number of contract at numerous levels with US agencies.
Everyone manufactures or gets parts from China that's what the issues have been in the last few months.
I'd personally like to exile up every bean-counter that has 'offshored' local manufacturing and employment just to make more profit. It was a short sighted move back when Maggie was waving her handbag, and people really should know better by now.
Wait, I'm agreeing with the Donald. Nurse ...!
>It's also pertinent to note that the UK government is playing an active role in efforts to diversify the 5G supply chain.
Interesting take on 'diversify', given the major vendors of 5G infrastructure are: Huawei, Samsung, Ericsson & Nokia and the UK/US approach is to reduce that list to 3.
Don't see anything unusual about this, just the application of commonsense.
If you've upgraded your network to 5G then it makes financial sense to strongly encourage your MVNO's to upgrade their offerings, if only it becomes easier to redefine 3G MVNO revenue as 5G MVNO revenue and so better justify the 5G investment to shareholders and investors...
I use my mobile as a phone and that's mostly it. I have Text shut off and I rarely use data. When I'm out and about, I'm not buried neck deep in my phone, I'm doing things and looking around. You have to be quick on your feet to dodge those Tesla's on Autopilot.
I'll be getting a 5G phone about the time that the 4G bandwidth is being shut down and reallocated. In the mean time, I can get a nice dual-sim used phone for about £25 off contract. I use them up and toss them in a recycle box if they are borked or reuse them for projects. I see old phones as a small computer with a screen and BT/WiFi. Great for Arduino and ESP32 interfacing.
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