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Speed. Latency. Capacity. It was on the horizon, but still largely an unknown that consumers could only imagine – unfortunately for some in rather dark and strange ways.
Two years later, Vestberg was the opening keynote speaker at the all-digital CES. He was there to talk about the adoption and possibilities of 5G, with 2020 being the year that networks were starting to provide 5G connectivity in appreciable ways and more devices were becoming available to take advantage of it. 
In many ways, 2020 was a strange year for the wider deployment of 5G because people weren’t particularly mobile. We were largely home, using Wi-Fi that is readily available if often frustrating in its performance. A lot of smartphones have come out with 5G capability, but available speeds on the national platforms are uneven. Your smartphone that can handle the faster speeds of 5G might not be delivering on that promise yet.
Be patient, it’s coming, was the message the Vestberg and other speakers at CES delivered. The city centers, large offices, stadiums, museums, and performance venues where all this connectivity could enable immersive experiences are sitting empty right now. But when we can get back together, 5G is poised to revolutionize how we live.

Hans Vestberg

“The biggest misconception is it’s just another G,” said Anne Chow, CEO, AT&T Business. “More speed, more fancy devices, and so what? But what I think is so powerful is 5G is a really critical ingredient, and enabler, in terms of next-generation networking and connectivity coupled with device innovation, and demographic shifts in the workforce. What 5G represents is that next generation of innovation. It will infuse into every aspect of our lives. If will infuse gaming, change retail, manufacturing, healthcare – there’s no facet of society that does not have an opportunity to innovate with 5G.”
Alejandro Holcman, Senior Vice President o, Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, said the pace of this transition and the spotty availability is similar to theshift from 3G to 4G but this process is more complex. Still, more than 200 million 5G devices have been shipped to date, he said. 
We really don’t fully know the capabilities of 5G because we haven’t fully experienced it, according to Drew Blackard, Vice President of Product Development for Samsung Technologies. There are “better” on 5G experiences and “only” on 5G experiences, he said. He mentioned Samsung’s partnership with Google to create a fully HD video chat platform, Cloud gaming on the Xbox. These are the “better with 5G” experiences but the “only” experiences are still being defined. 
For example, both he and Vestberg mentioned augmented reality experiences at football games. Not only does 5G provide the foundation for real-time immersive experiences while you’re sitting in the stadium, but it also has the capacity to handle 100,000 people doing the same thing in that stadium at the same time. 
Vestberg talked about 5G projects Verizon is working on with the Smithsonian, NFL, and Live Nation venues that will change those experiences – once we can get out and experience them. 
Several speakers mentioned that 5G will be the technology to truly enable autonomous driving because of its lack of latency. Edge and cloud computing powered by 5G offers up lots of interesting opportunities for real-time data that informs smart homes, cars, factories, supply chains, education, and pretty much all other facets of both consumer and commercial business where AI and machine-to-machine communication will drive improvements. 
5G could also play a big role in bridging the digital divide, Blackard said. Currently, nearly 20 percent of Americans don’t have access to broadband and getting the wiring into these areas – many of them rural and geographically challenging – is a costly and difficult endeavor. 
Mobile data usage spiked by 20 percent in the last year. “People are finding the fastest device they have is the one in their hands,” he said. “As 5G gets built out there are going to be people in the country who effectively get the equivalent of broadband for the first time through 5G, both through the distances it can carry and the speeds that it can deliver.”
Considering access to healthcare, remote working, operating a business, shopping and so much more is increasingly related to high-speed connectivity, bridging the digital divide may be the most transformational change 5G brings many underserved Americans in coming years. 
To Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard, 5G, cloud computing, and bitcoin are going to be shapers of the future of commerce and how businesses operate. “Trust-enabling” technologies will help businesses rethink their world.
“We have a unique opportunity where we need to rebuild after this crisis,” Miebach said. “Looking at getting back on our feet is going to take a different approach. We can hire more widely around the world and not have to be in a big city.” From shifting to a stakeholder capitalism focus to putting real muscle behind racial, geographic, and financial equity, Mastercard is a taking a 10-year view of a quickly shifting future, he said. “There’s no going back.”

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At CES in 2019, Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg gave the opening keynote address about the upcoming advantages of 5G.

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At CES in 2019, Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg gave the opening keynote address about the upcoming advantages of 5G.

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CES 2021: 5G starts revealing its potential

CES 2021: 5G starts revealing its potential

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