by 5G is moving faster than expected
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5G has been a hot topic for telecom stocks during the past year, and the rollout for nationwide consumer 5G gets closer and closer. During this past week, new updates of certain telecom companies and their progression of 5G networks have pointed out that 5G will be fully functional sooner than most people expected. In particular, Sprint has brought 5G to four more major cities in the US, including Los Angeles and New York City. Sprint’s 5G network is covering nine different markets and 11 million people which is currently more than any other domestic company. Sprint and T-Mobile also have a merger in the works. The companies are hoping that this merger will speed up the process of setting up these 5G networks even more as T-Mobile offers 5G services in 6 cities as of right now. On the competitor side of things, AT&T has also made 5G mobile services available in 21 cities, including parts of New York City and has lowered the expectancy for the consumer release of 5G to mid-2020. As long as their work with manufacturing companies such as Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia go smoothly throughout the process. Currently, the company is only offering 5G to people with business accounts under AT&T, so there is still a lot of work to be done. Looking at this data, it may seem great as a team that has invested in 5G to see these great strides being made. However, looking at realistic means of price options and products, the outlook for 5G being an everyday aspect of the technology world may still be farther out than we think.
The price outlook on the plans and the products that will be able to handle 5G are hitting extreme highs as would any product that has brand new technology. The question is, how high are consumers willing to pay for this new technology? To the right are the current prices of data plans for the usage of 5G alone, and doesn’t include the price of buying a phone that works with 5G. The average cost of these types of phones is about $1000, it’s tough to see a large consumer market with prices like these in the near future, but in the long-term, we may see a change. Companies such as Samsung are already looking for cheaper models to release so they can grab profits early in the 5G market. Carriers such as Sprint and Verizon have been funding billions of dollars into setting up networks around the country so that 5G can become more reliable and common.