5G is the future, but what about Wi-Fi?
BY KEVIN ZVOKEL, ERICSSON NORTH AMERICA
The telecommunications industry is approaching an inflection point. Deployment of 4G technology has brought cellular performance to unparalleled levels of data speed, coverage, mobility, and security.
With the advent of 5G, the next evolution in mobile wireless technology, this will accelerate even further. Ericsson’s recent ConsumerLab study revealed that a third of global customers who prefer Wi-Fi to mobile broadband expect 5G to outperform Wi-Fi in the future.
All of this is happening as our Internet usage habits become less reliant on hard-wired connections. A Cisco networking study found that, in 2017, 48% of IP traffic took place over fixed connections. But that number is expected to drop to 29% by 2022 as traffic moves to Wi-Fi and mobile, showing a major increase in reliance on wireless connections.