Executive Summary

The first commercial 5G networks will launch in 2019. Although the initial impact of 5G will be limited, it will eventually be a really big deal. In this report, we look at how 5G will change things for marketers, developers and media companies.

• Why is 5G a big deal? Buzz over 5G has picked up over the past year, and a lot of it is warranted. 5G will deliver throughput speeds in the gigabits, latency under 10 milliseconds, better reliability and massive capacity of as much as 1 million devices per cell. But those changes won’t happen overnight.
• How quickly will 5G spread? Compared with 4G’s launch a decade ago, it will spread quickly, thanks to two factors. To start, the system itself is more flexible and can be built on top of existing 4G LTE networks without initially replacing them. Also, governments—particularly in the US and East Asia—have seized on 5G to build competitiveness and are working to release spectrum to auctions relatively quickly.
• How will 5G revolutionize services? The faster downloads will not only enable higher definition and more reliable mobile video, but also shift some intensive processing to the cloud, opening the way for more augmented and virtual reality, multichannel video and advanced games to proliferate on mobile. Longer term, the lower latency and higher capacity will allow for the development of smart cities, pervasive IoT, wireless factories and autonomous cars.
• What can marketers and media do to thrive in 5G? Advertisers should explore new interactive advertising formats. More generally, the media ecosystem needs to build faster servers, more distributed data centers and interactive media that will take advantage of 5G’s possibilities.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report will look at why 5G is important, when it will arrive in force, and how the marketing ecosystem should act now to prepare.

KEY STAT: 5G will launch in 2019, but the major impact of the new network won’t hit until 2021, when mass usage takes off and networks start delivering fast, low-latency data.