So 5G has nothing to do with the cause of Coronavirus, but Coronavirus is effecting 5G. Before I go any further I feel for all the folks affected by the virus and the rollout of 5G is the last thing anyone in the tech industry should be worried about for now; keeping themselves and their families safe should be there main concern.
Back to the 5G, the slow rollout was causing tech investors confusion and disappointment before the Coronavirus ever started. The slower than expected upgrading to 5G was happening almost from the beginning as planning for an aggressive rollout proved to be unattainable. Now with the virus hitting so hard in China, so many of the component parts needed for both the network and devices has slowed. On the device side, most of the semiconductors and displays for smart phones are produced in China. On the networking side, certain parts are needed to update the infrastructure, which, again, are produced in China. Currently it’s unknown how the virus will affect the supply chain but we can already see the fears coming from the carriers and device manufactures.
Believe me this is a painful article to write, and through my research I have learned more. The United States was already behind Asia and many of the European countries with advancing 5G, both in infrastructure and number of devices in use. Those countries will be affected as well, but they have more components in the pipeline than we do. The United States was attempting to catch up, but now with the supply chain disruption who knows.
When I started this series, I promised to monitor both the networks and devices and try to educate you with what you need to know about 5G. I enjoyed last month’s article helping you understand how 5G was going to improve your speed, capacity and latency. I planned on sharing more facts this month, but obviously with what is happening I decided it was best to share this information. So, as for my March update, there is no need to start shopping for devices or carriers for 5G.
