5G brings so many new technologies to telecom. It’s easily the industry’s most transformative network evolution yet. With cloud-native cores, network slicing, edge computing, and other innovations, 5G networks will look and act unlike anything we’ve seen before. But with so many new capabilities and possibilities, the next mobile generation also carries big question marks.
Which new services and use cases will gain traction first, especially in the coveted enterprise and industrial sector? When will we see the first true “killer apps” for 5G? We don’t yet have clear answers. In our role helping service providers around the world test and validate their networks, we’ve had a firsthand look at how operators are working through these questions. Based on what we’re seeing in the field, here are the biggest trends to watch this year.