FULL SPEED AHEAD By Bruce Christian With 5G evolving as rapidly as it is, perhaps it’s time to ask whether we already have entered a new gigabit era, or are we just getting prepared to burst open the door? During a recent six-month period, local performance testing by CELLSMART, the cellular intelligence division of SmartCIC, found new levels of performance in indoor and outdoor 5G networks. And according to the assessment results 5G, indeed, is demonstrating maturity and beginning to deliver on the promise of 1 Gbps download speeds. While the report concludes that we aren’t quite ready to say we’ve entered the gigabit era, we certainly are close. “The industry is on the cusp of the gigabit era in cellular networks with these speeds moving from the lab to field in 2023.” CELLSMART analysts stated. The CELLSMART survey, which collected data from 21,456 network speed tests conducted in 67 countries and 1,350 locations between March 25, 2022, and October 31, 2022, documents that cellular performance remains uneven globally, but the overall trend is toward higher speeds, lower latencies and greater resiliency in cellular networks. This led CELLSMART to conclude that 5G is showing the viability of fixed wireless access as a simple, efficient and reliable alternative to fiber or other terrestrial network infrastructure. 5G maturity pushing wireless into new gigabit era MOBILE & WIRELESS 26 CHANNELV ISION | MARCH - APRIL 2023
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