With plenty of headlines signaling 5G-fueled transformation, it’s important to separate promise from hype. This measured awareness, coupled with excitement for the fascinating enterprise opportunities ahead, will help businesses get ahead of changes and challenges in the 5G era.

Jason Leigh, a research manager for the International Data Corporation (IDC), analyzes the emerging 5G ecosystem and what it means for businesses. Here, he explores the potential of next-gen networks on the business community while also level-setting expectations.

Why is there so much confusion about what 5G can do?

If you’ve heard a variety of perspectives on 5G, there’s a good reason why: There are actually three different bands (or ranges) of 5G signal.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what 5G is and isn’t in the marketplace,” says Leigh. “We see a lot of companies with the mindset that 5G will replace everything. The reality is that it’s a much more complicated question given all the connectivity bands out there in the market.”

Understanding these three signal bands is a smart first step toward simplifying the technology and understanding its potential:

High-band 5G: These wave frequencies have tons of bandwidth, but require cell sites to be in close proximity and have limited penetration in buildings.

Mid-band 5G: These frequencies have broader coverage and are less affected by buildings, with the ability to serve metropolitan areas.

Low-band 5G: Low-band frequencies, like T-Mobile’s 600MHz spectrum, can travel hundreds of square miles and pass through more obstacles, providing a stronger, more reliable signal both indoors and outside.

How will 5G compare to what I have now?

In the past, we’ve seen how generational advances in cellular networks can change the way we use mobile technology. For example, Leigh says that LTE could be defined by the smartphone becoming the powerful device of choice for consumers. But we shouldn’t expect 5G to have similar implications: The advances it fuels won’t be phone-centric.

“5G is probably not going to be defined by any one singular device, but rather a very diverse set of device types,” he says. “If I look at 5G strictly as a technology by itself and what it can do vis-a-vis LTE or 4G, it is an incredible performance improvement.”

But it’ll take time before the full set of 5G use cases we tend to hear about—fully autonomous cars, remote surgeries and other futuristic concepts—will be ready for prime time.

What’s the business opportunity?

Imagine this: On a factory floor, one production cycle ends and another is ready to begin, not just for the same product in a different color, but for an entirely different product line. Rather than sending out staff to reconfigure the floor, you simply push a button. 

“And you watch the factory floor reconfigure itself for product run number two,” says Leigh. "That flexibility is really fascinating to me.”

That sort of automation is one type of 5G opportunity Leigh envisions for businesses: internal operations efficiencies. Automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) are just a few of the 5G-enabled tools that businesses can leverage for major efficiency gains. Consider a retailer using AI to field 90% of its customer service calls or an architect using VR to design a building—allowing front-line service reps to more quickly solve customer problems, letting architects socialize and refine designs faster, or many other scenarios.

The second business opportunity, Leigh says, is how 5G will enable organizations to create new products and services to drive revenue. While there are all kinds of possibilities for business innovation, Leigh expects it’ll take one blockbuster product or service to showcase 5G potential in this area.

“We need that Pokémon Go,” he says. “That one, massive, home-run use case.”

But that 5G use case will likely look very different from a single product or service. In fact, it might be more about what disappears than what appears. For example, the need for device security may become much simpler once devices can do everything from everywhere via the cloud.

“Imagine a scenario where my laptop is nothing more than a keyboard screen and a radio receiver,” Leigh says. “No data sits on it. It almost makes the laptop disposable. I lose it, and guess what? Nobody can use it to access data because there’s nothing on it.”

What challenges will we face?

For businesses, expectation management will be key. Understanding the capabilities and availability of the three types of 5G bands will help business leaders maximize their use of 5G over time. For example, today high-band 5G is very expensive to implement, in addition to having limited range.

On the other hand, “there’s the very low-frequency 5G, where you could put up a single tower and cover miles and miles of territory, and it transmits indoors,” Leigh says. Currently, that makes low-band 5G the most practical spectrum for businesses to leverage.

As 5G starts to ignite innovation, Leigh also anticipates regulatory obstacles for businesses, from acquiring FDA approval for technology required for remote surgery to the network buildout in a huge country with a decentralized regulatory regime.

What about 5G should businesses get excited about today?

Understanding the intricacies of 5G allows business leaders to start planning for the future today.

“Companies already investing in digital transformations are going to realize some of those benefits earlier because they’re already thinking, ‘What happens if I’m able to unplug every PC, every piece of equipment in my factory, and the only things that are bolted down are the floor, wall and ceiling?’” says Leigh.

“There’s a lot to be excited about—but we need a lot more planning,” he says. “For a business looking to deploy 5G, you need to start thinking about it now, with an eye on what the timeline is. What would I like to connect, and what difference will it make? Who do I need to partner with to get this done?”

Ming-Chi Kuo is back! Widely regarded as the ‘best Apple AAPL +0.82% analyst on the planet’, Kuo has delivered a major new report which reveals Apple will make several radical changes to its overhauled iPhone line-up in September...

Picked up MacRumors, Kuo states Apple will make moves with its new iPhones which might surprise long-term fans. Let’s break them down:

#1 - Colourful Past, Colourful Future

Kuo states Apple will return to its iPhone 5C strategy this year by releasing a ‘budget iPhone X’ model in multiple colours. These include white, blue, red and orange alongside the usual (space) gray. And this is just the start.

Consistently reliable tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka @Onleaks) adds to Kuo’s report saying Apple is also considering yellow and pink.

Kuo notes the more premium second generation iPhone X and massive new iPhone X Plus will come in just three colours: the standard white (aka silver) and black (aka space gray) as well as a new shade of gold, something Apple has experimented with before.


#2 - Dual Sim

While dual sim phones have been hugely popular in Asia for years, Apple has long resisted the pull until now. Kuo’s report says Apple will introduce dual-sim dual-standby (DSDS) functionality for the iPhone X Plus (no word on other models) allowing users to run two networks simultaneously.

For some, this will be a pointless feature but for many the option to keep work and home sims, or home and foreign sims when travelling, in the same phone could prove a deal maker.

#3 - Price Cuts

Kuo was the first person to state Apple would slash iPhone prices back in January and he has now doubled down on this in his new report. Kuo believes Apple will price the iPhone X Plus at the original iPhone X price of just under $1,000 (assume $999), with the second generation iPhone X sitting below it, while the budget iPhone X will be just $700.

It is the last of these which is likely to get everyone’s attention. Given the budget iPhone X (my guess is it will simply be called ‘iPhone’ like the entry level ‘MacBook’ and ‘iPad’) will sport an (almost) identical design to its premium stablemates, a $300 saving should have widespread appeal. Especially considering the relatively minor feature compromises.

None of which is to the say the new iPhones are flawless. In fact, we already know they will have disappointingly iterative performance.

That said, speed has never been the primary concern as iPhones are already blisteringly quick, so a compromise here of performance stagnation in return for some genuine attempts to reinvigorate the range and ease the strain on our wallets could well bring Apple the sales supercycle the original iPhone X failed to deliver…

OnePlus has managed to build itself a nice little niche in the budget-flagship part of the market with phones like the new OnePlus 6. However, all its phones have been sold direct to consumers as unlocked devices. Now, CEO and co-founder Pete Lau says the Chinese company is looking into deals with US carriers as well as rolling out its first 5G phone, PCMag reports.

On the 5G front, OnePlus says that could happen as soon as next year. The company has always worked closely with Qualcomm to include the latest and most powerful SoC in its phones. Thus, OnePlus will likely be one of the first to roll out a phone with 5G connectivity.

US carriers are not expected to begin consumer deployments of 5G until 2019, and initial markets will be extremely limited. The first round of devices will also be limited to Wi-Fi hotspots. Phones won’t come until later. OnePlus traditionally does two major phone releases per year, so the early 2019 device may still be 4G with a late 2019 version running on 5G.

Currently, OnePlus’ phones are GSM/LTE unlocked. So, they work on AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. If you want one, you need to purchase it directly from OnePlus. The OnePlus 6 starts at $530, which is a good deal for what you get. The phone packs the same processor as the Galaxy S9 with more RAM and better software. However, the total price of a phone isn’t as important as it once was.

Most US consumers purchase smartphones from their carriers on payment plans. So, a phone might cost $900 total, but the price is split up over two years. At that point, the difference between a $900 phone and a $600 phone is a few bucks on each bill. It’s hard to convince consumers to spend $530 on a phone up front, even if that’s a better deal in the long run.


Lau says carrier sales in the US would allow more people to try OnePlus phones before buying them. He’s confident the company’s speedy software will win them over. Lau also dismisses any concern about carriers overloading OnePlus phones with bloatware. I doubt OnePlus would be able to keep all carrier bloat off its phones, but at least Lau understands how much we hate bloatware.

OnePlus launched the OnePlus 6 in May, and it sold a million units in 22 days. That’s the fastest selling phone it’s made yet. The next phone should debut late this year with or without a carrier deal.

Android phone-maker BLU Products agreed to a proposed settlement on Tuesday with the Federal Trade Commission, over allegations it allowed the third-party firm Adups Technology to collect detailed consumer data from users without their consent.

In an administrative complaint filed earlier this week against BLU and the company’s co-owner and president Samuel Ohev-Zion, the FTC accused the firm of sharing with China-based Adups the full contents of their users’ text messages, real-time cell tower location data, call and text-message logs, contact lists, and applications used and installed on devices.

Ultimately, the FTC is alleging Ohev-Zion and BLU violated the FTC Act’s section pertaining to “deceptive representation regarding disclosure of personal information.” The proposed settlement will be made final after a 30-day public comment period.

In its proposed complaint, the FTC said Florida-based BLU contracted with Adups to issue security and operating system updates to millions of phones sold by the firm through Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart. In addition to allegedly failing to protect consumer privacy, the FTC asserts that BLU failed “to adequately assess the privacy and security risks of third-party software installed on BLU devices” resulting in “common security vulnerabilities that could enable attackers to gain full access to the devices.”

Issues with BLU phones became public in Nov. 2016, when security researchers at Kryptowire first reported that several models of BLU phones actively transmitted user and device information to Adups.

Problems allegedly snowballed for BLU from there, according to the FTC.

“Because pre-installed software on BLU devices contained commonly known security vulnerabilities that, for example, made them susceptible to ‘command-injection’ attacks…an unknown third party could exploit [these] to gain full access to users’ devices and, among other things, factory-reset a device, take screenshots and video recordings of a device’s screen, and install malicious applications,” the FTC wrote in its proposed complaint.

In a statement to Threatpost in July 2017, Adups said “issues from 2016 have been solved” and moving forward it would “only send completely safe and reliable (firmware over-the-air update) versions to [its] customers.” Yet in October, Threatpost worked with researchers at Lookout to examine a number of BLU phones bought by a Florida-based network administrator James Lockmuller in July 2017.

“After 14 days of acting normal, an app called Setting installed itself mysteriously on the handsets, giving itself full permissions over the phones,” Lockmuller said at the time. “The phone started popping up installers and displaying ads for other apps. I uninstalled Setting and everything else I could. But the apps kept reinstalling themselves.”

According to that forensic analysis, Lookout determined that the culprit behind the mysterious app installs and bombardment of ads was the firmware BLU used, provided by Adups. The firm observed malicious ad components being downloaded silently via Adups’ advertising back-end platform.

The proposed settlement agreement with the FTC does not include any financial penalty or consumer restitution over the alleged issues with affected phones, because in first offense matters such as this, the FTC lacks the power to levy such financial penalties. However, if BLU violated the final FTC settlement order, it could face a civil penalty of up to $41,484 per incident.

The proposed agreement would subject BLU to third-party security assessments every two years for 20 years, as well as require it to maintain compliance-monitoring requirements.

The FTC is inviting the public to comment on the settlement reached with BLU up until May 30. At that time, the Commission will decide whether to make it final.

Many of us use third party chargers to replenish our smartphones when the battery gets low.

But a Warren County, Ohio woman has a warning for everyone, after she says her charger exploded and almost caught the house on fire.

Jeanie Capiello travels frequently, and is constantly charging her phone and iPad.

But she'll never forget what recently happened while visiting a friend and charging her iLive portable charger in an upstairs bedroom.

"We heard a bang," she said, "and the smoke alarm went off. So we ran upstairs and the bed was on fire, the floor's on fire, and the nightstand was on fire. It was really scary."

Photos on her iPad show the burn damage, she says, when the lithium battery inside the portable charger exploded.

"It popped out and this (the lithium battery roughly the size of a AA battery) shot out, hit the bed and caught the bed on fire, and it fell on the floor. And that's where we found it."

Capiello wants to share her story because she is concerned this could happen to other people, if they are charging up the portable charger while they are asleep or even when they are away.

Growing number of complaints

Inexpensive, third-party portable chargers are blamed for hundreds of fires, Including a recent one on a Chinese jet and another on a Russian airliner. Luckily, passengers were able to extinguish them.

Amazon this year recalled a quarter million Amazon Basics chargers for this very reason.

We checked with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and found no complaints of this happening with iLive chargers before. but the company recently recalled some of its hoverboard batteries for fire risk.

And it's not just portable power packs with issues: Inexpensive third party power bricks and phone cords have shorted and caught fire, as Katie Sherchock told me last year.

"I just head an explosion," she said. "And I stopped a second and said 'what was that?' And I look down and see the sparks."

“The market is getting a bit bored now of the black rectangles.”

That’s a strong statement to make at the mobile-phone industry’s biggest annual expo, which brought more than 100,000 people to Barcelona this week. But the boss of a major reseller of handsets told Quartz at the Mobile World Congress that everyone is still “waiting for a game changer,” and he had a point.

Consider the devices unveiled at the expo. Samsung launched a souped-up version of its previous flagship, another retro Nokia was given a modern makeover, and obscure Chinese manufacturers faithfully copied the worst aspects of the iPhone X. Oh, and Asus made a big deal of unveiling the ZenFone 5, touted as a big improvement on the, er, ZenFone V. During the show, it emerged that quarterly global smartphone sales fell for the first time ever.

So, have we run out of ideas?

Not necessarily. To listen to the telco execs tell it, soon-to-come 5G networks will bring gigabit speeds that will enable self-driving cars, robotic surgery conducted across continents, and ubiquitous AI. Then again, they’ve been saying that for years. Privately, they fret about the enormous cost of upgrading their networks and worry that the step up from 4G to 5G will be as inconsequential as the “meh” move from 3G to 4G.

The industry demands continuous disruption, and gets anxious during times of incremental improvements. Think back to 2006, when delegates in Barcelona had little notion that a niche computer company in San Francisco would soon announce a shiny black rectangle that would change the course of the industry for the next decade.

A similar disruption could be around the corner—perhaps something to do with AI, AR, or bots—unbeknownst to the telco execs in Barcelona. In the meantime, the best the established players will continue invest in things like slimmer handset designs and faster networks in the hope that, if they build it, the next iPhone will come.