Chris’ note: Last night, over 17,000 readers tuned in to our “State of 5G” summit. Our tech expert, Jeff Brown, laid out why the 5G boom is accelerating as a result of COVID-19… and how you can profit.
Jeff even demonstrated some 5G tech in action in front of the White House. He got speeds more than 100 times faster than anything available on current 4G networks.
If you missed last night’s summit, as a Daily Cut reader, you can catch up in full here now. Then, come back and read the 5G Q&A I put together with Jeff. It’s all you need to know about this revolutionary new technology… and why demand will soar due to COVID-19.
Chris Lowe: Every month, thousands of new readers subscribe to Legacy Research advisories. Not everyone will know what 5G is and why it’s so revolutionary. So let’s start by bringing everyone up to speed.
Jeff Brown: Sure. When you connect to the internet at home on your PC, games console, or smart TV, a vast physical infrastructure makes that connection possible.
There’s a 500,000-mile-long network of fiber-optic cables beneath the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, for instance. These undersea cables link into land-based fiber-optic networks. These connect into our homes and businesses.
But when you’re out and about, you use a wireless network to get data to and from your smartphone or tablet. We broadcast data wirelessly to and from cell phone towers. These towers then connect to the land-based fiber-optic networks.
Over the years, this network has evolved. We’ve updated the cell phone towers, the fiber-optic cables, and the devices that operate over this network. Each new version of the network is an improvement on the last.
We built out the 1G network in the 1980s. Compared to what’s possible today, it didn’t allow you to do much. You could only place voice calls – there was no layer for carrying other types of data. And you had to use one of those brick-sized cell phones Gordon Gekko yaps into in the movie Wall Street.
Today, we have the 4G network. It went live just over a decade ago. And it gave us connection speeds fast enough to support video streaming and GPS location services. Without 4G networks, watching a high-quality video stream on Netflix is impossible.
Now, we’re shifting to the fifth generation of wireless networks – 5G. It’s a step change in terms of the speeds it delivers. It’s going to make some “sci-fi” technologies a reality. And as I explained to folks who tuned in to my “State of 5G” summit last night, it’s going to generate trillions of dollars of new wealth. MIT Technology Review estimates that 5G will unlock $12.3 trillion in revenue across the industries it touches.
Chris: How much better is 5G than what we’ve got today?
Jeff: 4G was a flop. The folks who built the network said it would deliver average download speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps). But on average, we can download at speeds of about 10 Mbps.
Believe it or not, the U.S. has some of the slowest internet speeds in the world. We’re typically in 50th place. We’re behind Romania. Even Dracula has internet speeds faster than most Americans. And some parts of the U.S. – suburban and rural areas – are lucky to get 15 Mbps.
But 5G’s average speed will be 1 gigabit per second. [1 gigabit is equal to 1,000 megabits.] That means 5G speeds will be 100 times faster than what we have today, on average. And peak 5G speed is 10 gigabits per second (Gbps). That means peak 5G speeds would be about 1,000 times faster than 4G.
Chris: What does that mean for internet users?
Jeff: First, it means blazing-fast download speeds. You’ll be able to download a movie on your phone in seconds. You’ll also be able to play online virtual reality games on there. It also means calls won’t drop like they do today.
But here’s what readers need to understand. These 4G networks get congested. And it’s getting worse due to the coronavirus lockdowns.
This is why I tell my readers that COVID-19 can’t stop 5G. The pandemic is accelerating demand for better, faster wireless networks.
Data traffic rates have spiked as much as 50% in just the last few weeks. The pandemic has highlighted that our current 4G wireless networks are already congested and slowing down. The world needs the capacity and speed that 5G wireless technology provides.
I know this from my “boots-on-the-ground” research. I tried out the 5G networks right by the White House in Washington, D.C. I used a Samsung Galaxy S20+, which is a 5G-enabled smartphone. I’m rarely surprised when it comes to high tech, but this time, the results blew me away.
For instance, the 5G speeds in front of the White House were nearly 1.7 Gbps. That blows away 4G speeds.
Chris: I know you believe this virus could come back in the fall along with colder temperatures. And we’ve been talking about how that means folks could be spending a lot more time in their homes for longer than they bargain for. Can we expect more strain on the 4G networks we mostly still use today?
Jeff: I like to use Vodafone as a gauge. It has operations in 24 countries and partner networks in 42 other countries. About one-fifth of the world’s internet traffic travels across Vodafone networks.
The company says its recent mobile data usage has increased as much as 30% in places such as Spain and Italy. These are two coronavirus hotspots where strict lockdowns are in place.
And the “upstream” data (flowing from consumers to the network) has jumped as much as 100%. This is due to all the extra video calls, teleconferencing, and movie and TV streaming.
In the last four weeks, Vodafone has seen the equivalent of six months of typical data traffic growth. And the company is working to rapidly upgrade its infrastructure. It’s adding new fiber-optic lines as well as additional data-center capacity.
This supports what I’ve been saying the past few weeks. Although the pandemic has hit many businesses hard, certain tech companies are seeing a massive spike in demand.
For these select companies, sales are going way up… not down. But the best tech stocks have pulled back significantly along with the overall market. That’s a major disconnect that provides savvy tech investors with a rare window of opportunity.
That’s why the 5G story is so important. Physical tech infrastructure will boom in lockdowns and semi-lockdowns. We desperately need it to alleviate network congestion. And 5G is an important part of the solution.
One of the biggest questions I get right now from my readers is whether COVID-19 will slow down the 5G rollout. Maybe we’ll put 5G on hold as we get the virus under control.
Not a chance. 5G is more essential than ever. The best 5G stocks have been brought down to incredibly cheap valuations. That’s a “no-brainer” setup for us tech investors.
If your readers are interested in seeing me demonstrate 5G technology… or they want to learn more about how to profit from the opportunity ahead… they can catch up on a replay of my “State of 5G” summit right here.
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