Autonomous vehicles, robotic surgery, infrastructure monitoring, and energy management are just a few of the use cases for 5G-enabled IoT.
The impact of the internet of things (IoT) on the economy will be immense. In 2020, about 20.4B IoT units will be installed and IoT-related spending will reach nearly $3T, according to Gartner estimates.
But with the proliferation of these devices comes hundreds of zettabytes (1 trillion gigabytes) of additional data.
Today’s 4G wireless technology can handle certain IoT applications, but it suffers from latency and a lack of bandwidth. Within the next decade, the next generation of wireless technology, known as 5G, will allow IoT devices to transmit large amounts of data between edge sensors, data centers, and a variety of other distributed computing resources in near real time.
While it may take another decade before 5G experiences widespread adoption, initial deployment is expected later this year.
Using the CB Insights Earnings Transcript tool, we see just how much corporates are talking about this next generation wireless technology. 5G was collectively mentioned over 900 times on Q1 2018 earnings calls, up 70% over Q4 2017 mentions.
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