Despite tons of hype, 5G coverage is still not available in most areas. In fact, the “5G’ that is available, especially of the fastest version of 5G (mmWave) is limited to just a few blocks in in most cities.
But according to Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon, the 5G coverage situation should change by the end of this year.
“We should see 5G in all metropolitan areas in the United States, as well as in China, Korea, Japan, and Europe towards the end of 2020,” Amon told Yahoo Finance during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Qualcomm doesn’t create the actual infrastructure for 5G technologies. Rather, it produces the chips and modems that add 5G to commercial and consumer products. In fact, it’s Qualcomm that will likely bring 5G to Apple’s next version of the iPhone, which is expected to launch in September 2020.
So why doesn’t 5G, something that companies have been pushing for years, have the kind of coverage as current 4G LTE networks? According to Amon, part of the issue is that companies have to get permits to put up their 5G antennas. And since high-end 5G connectivity, like Verizon’s (VZ) millimeter wave 5G, requires companies to deploy far more antennas than 4G LTE, the permitting process is causing slowdowns.
MacDailyNews Take: 5G will be “in” all U.S.metropolitan areas, but the ubiquity of the coverage is the question. This is going to take years. If anything, Apple’s “iPhone 5G,” due later this year, will be early to a party that’s just barely getting started.