NCTA Official Uses Panel to Poke Some Fun at 5G, Says Cable Can Market 10G Better

An NCTA representative used a panel on wireless 5G and cable's 10 Gbps plan (see 1901070048) at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Summer Policy Summit Monday in Indianapolis to poke some fun at 5G, also saying cable could do better in marketing broadband like 1 Gbps. After a moderator introduced the panel as on 5G v. 10G, NCTA Vice President-External and State Affairs Rick Cimerman gently corrected it to 5G and 10G. The cable rep said that the two standards complement, rather than compete, with each other. "It's been 5G mania, maybe we should hear a little bit about the next iteration for us," he said: For 10G, the "G stands for something." While 5G can deliver data at 1 Gbps, it's not meant to connote 5 Gbps. "The marketing geniuses at CTIA and the wireless industry" are emphasizing 5G, while cable has "not helped people properly understand that we are now a gigabit nation," Cimerman said. CTIA research shows demand for smartphones/mobile devices and data usage is surging, noted that group's Ben Aron, director-state regulatory affairs. Answering a commissioner's question about whether 5G will boost prices, Aron noted that price consumers pay per voice minute are going down like a hockey stick numerical-graph figure. "The same could be said for data, it's cheaper today than previously," he said. "The capital expenditure has been pretty consistent" by carriers yearly in recent times, so for 5G, he continued, "folding in this network deployment isn’t really that shocking to the system."