Jacobs told Mobile World Live that 5G would make things quite a bit more reliable - and that seems to be the focus, not speed. He asked whether anyone would be comfortable playing their pacemaker controller in the cloud via wireless. That is a pretty high bar in our book, especially if you factor in carriers - many of them have an unimpressive record when it comes to new tech.
“We’re considering what we can do to re-architect even the structure of the internet – as seen through mobile devices – to make it more reliable, accountable, private and secure. Those kinds of things is where 5G ought to head,” he said.
We have to admit it makes sense from a marketing perspective, too. 5G should enable speeds of up to 1Gbps, but due to higher frequencies coverage will necessitate a lot of investment since 5G range is bound to be limited. It will be an easier sell if it ends up more reliable than 4G and speed isn't all that important beyond a certain point, so it can't be the only incentive to upgrade.
