LAS VEGAS — For years, telecommunications companies and gadget makers have invaded CES to talk about how big 5G was going to be in 2020.

1. 1/16/2020 CES 2020: The long-promised ‘Year of 5G’ arrives with more promises and little 5G - MarketWatch
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ces-2020-the-long-promised-year-of-5g-arrives-with-more-promises-and-little-5g-2020-01-10/print 1/3
Lenovo Group Ltd. executive Johnson Jia unveiled the Yoga 5G
always-connected PC at CES this week, one of the new gadgets
designed for a new wireless standard that is still being built.
CES 2020: The long-promised ‘Year of 5G’
arrives with more promises and little 5G
By Emily Bary
Published: Jan 11, 2020 10:06 a.m. ET
More 5G devices are being pitched at higher prices than regular gadgets, but service is still not active in many areas and may
not be as fast as expected at rst
This replaces a previous item that incorrectly reported the name of AT&T’s mobility executive. It has been corrected.
LAS VEGAS — For years, telecommunications companies and
gadget makers have invaded CES to talk about how big 5G was
going to be in 2020.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2020 though the promise
was still unful lled as the faster wireless service is still spotty and
not entirely what was envisioned.
Without the premier connections that were promised, it is
questionable how many consumers will buy the more expensive
5G-enabled devices that were introduced at the giant trade show
this year, even though the same glowing predictions of a new
future were readily available throughout Las Vegas.
5G promises faster data speeds, a reduction in lag time, and greater density for smart devices, all things that could eventually
be catalysts for futuristic applications like autonomous driving and connected cities. More immediately, carriers are focused
on exposing businesses and customers to those faster data speeds, where and when they can.
Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, +0.10% expects to launch 20 devices with access to 5G by the end of the year, up from the
seven that currently exist, according to Tami Erwin, who heads the company’s business group. AT&T Inc. T, -0.58% mobility
executive Kevin Petersen told MarketWatch at CES that accessibility will also be a key theme in the year ahead.
T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS, +0.59% claimed that it conducted a nationwide 5G rollout at the end of last year, providing access
over a greater area but at slower data speeds than competitors. Verizon and AT&T both plan to add new cities to their
coverage later this year, with AT&T still expecting to have nationwide coverage this year also.
Bob O’Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research, cautions that these upgrades won’t happen right away due to some
technical aspects of the 5G rollout. The more exciting type of 5G, millimeter-wave spectrum, primarily works outdoors and on
campuses where it’s been speci cally deployed. Sub-6 5G service works indoors and offers some bene ts in speed and
latency, but it’s a less dramatic step up from the 4G service consumers have come to know.
“The pieces are coming together but the forward-looking bene ts are still a few years off,” O’Donnell said. Part of the issue is
that 5G currently runs on top of 4G, rather than in a stand alone manner. Moving to stand alone 5G requires that carriers
“refarm” spectrum frequencies from 4G to 5G, but they’re hesitant to make that big leap right away while most customers are
still using 4G connections and while few phones support 5G.
“That’s like opening a 10-lane highway only for people with electric cars,” he said, since only a small minority of drivers would
have access.
Making 5G a reality is a bit of a “chicken and egg” scenario, according to O’Donnell, given that carriers thinking about moving
away from 4G want there to be enough devices in the market to take advantage of the new wireless standard, and consumers
want to make sure 5G networks are broad enough before investing in a mobile device that works on the network.
The device part of the equation showed signs of progress at CES, with connected PCs being one notable category. Lenovo
Group Ltd. 992, +1.22% announced it will launch in the spring the Yoga 5G two-in-one device, which it says is the rst 5G PC.
Always-connected PCs let customers rely on cellular connectivity rather than hunt for WiFi networks, and the 5G products
shown by Lenovo, HP Inc. HPQ, +0.09% , and others offer faster speeds than 4G ones currently on the market.
Those devices are more expensive than competitive gadgets without access to the technology, though, and that will most
likely continue to be the case. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 005930, +2.88% will be holding a smartphone launch in early
Getty ImagesGetty Images

2. 1/16/2020 CES 2020: The long-promised ‘Year of 5G’ arrives with more promises and little 5G - MarketWatch
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February, where the company is expected to introduce a family of 5G Galaxy devices, and Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.43% is thought
to be planning a 5G iPhone rollout later this year, with analysts expecting the 5G versions of those popular smartphones to
carry a higher price tag.
Instinet analyst Jeffrey Kvaal expects “a large increase” in 5G unit sales for 2020, up from a small base of sales last year, but he
thinks most of these sales will come at the expense of 4G devices, rather than a rush of upgrades. He estimates that 5G could
boost a phone’s retail price by at least $75.
Today’s devices tend to be in the $1,000-plus range, but consumers should “start to see prices coming down, which ultimately
helps the adoption curve,” as more mid-tier devices come to market this year equipped with 5G capabilities. Verizon’s
consumer chief executive Ronan Dunne said at a Citi investor conference earlier this week that there could be 5G devices
priced below $600 by the end of the year.
AT&T Chief Financial Of cer John Stephens told investors at the Citi conference that trying to predict 5G unit sales is missing
the point a bit, since handset sales are “not a pro table enterprise for a business like ours." The company sees various new
service revenue opportunities from being able to compete “in the geographies where our service has gotten much better.”
The promise of 5G goes well beyond smartphones, and executives pointed out that the services that have developed in the
past decade likely wouldn’t have existed without the move to 4G.
“If someone was watching a streaming video on a connection 10 years ago, you would’ve swatted the phone out of their hand
and said they were going to use up the whole monthly data plan in 13 seconds,” Qualcomm Inc.’s QCOM, -0.98% vice
president of engineering John Smee told MarketWatch. Now, streaming over wireless is commonplace. Verizon’s Erwin noted
that the proliferation of ride hailing also wouldn’t have been possible without the upgrade in data speeds.
AT&T’s Petersen thinks it’s too soon to know what the killer use case for 5G will be, but he’s upbeat about its ability to provide
upgraded experiences in gaming, translation and medicine. A reduction in latency, or lag time, could create better
responsiveness for gamers and reduce awkward pauses when people are using mobile devices to translate from one language
to another in real time. Doctors could more easily monitor patients remotely after procedures by using connected devices.
Over time, the expected bene ts of 5G and the growth of accessible smart devices could change the way consumers and
workers think about doing data-heavy tasks. Smee even suggested that it could replace the need for Wi-Fi for most users.
“If you think of your cable modem or your DSL and you look at the rates you get compared to the 5G data rate, all of a sudden
wireless is the preferred medium and that’s a big game changer versus the idea that you have to have wired connectivity to
have high data rates,” he said.
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Emily Bary
Emily Bary is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York.
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