While we go for 5G, no one should forget about 4G

With all the hype, it can be difficult to keep in mind that 5G will only ever build on top of the technologies that come before it. Indeed, even the original 5G New Radio spec agreed last year was clearly labelled NSA, which means Non-Standalone: it's designed to work with 4G. In the race for 5G, we should feel a bit sorry for the people who forget about earlier mobile tech.

Indeed, there are such people. Take for example, the poor chap who has his name associated with the discredited government plan to develop a nationalised 5G network in the US. MNOs were meant to rent the network he suggested. It's just a wee issue how MNOs will cooperate over a shared network when they each have their own separate 4G equipment already deployed.

This is however an issue that others are conscious of. It's not the most well-written piece, but Chinese OEM ZTE sponsored this article, The Convergence of 4G and 5G Drives Network Evolution over on RCR Wireless. I'd take a degree of scepticism to what the article promises. However, it's good to see that people are thinking about it.

I myself don't have any answers on this issue - I'm not technically-minded, just a wee bit economically-minded. If the economics of 5G mean networks have to be shared for the numbers to work, having MNOs start to share is still a huge issue to overcome.

I'm definitely going to be watching closely. If you're interested to see what I observe or if you yourself are keen to comment on developments, please come join us at the group, Commercializing 5G.