ABI Warns 5G Transition Will Cause E-Waste Inundation in 2021

Environmentally friendly 5G, “mainstream” virtual reality and ubiquitous Wi-Fi 6E are among trends ABI Research predicted won't happen in 2021. That global 5G subscriptions are forecast to grow 48.4% to 347 million “will strain the environment as a growing number of consumers will be switching over to 5G devices,” said ABI Tuesday: “The transition will potentially create large amounts of electronic waste.” Stakeholders “have not aligned” to enable mainstream VR adoption, it said. Growth will be strong in 2021, “but the user base will not reach levels once thought probable,” where VR competes for time with TVs and smartphones, it said. COVID-19 further accelerated demand for high-efficiency Wi-Fi networks, said the researcher. But residential broadband adoption of Wi-Fi 6E, an extended Wi-Fi 6 network with 6 GHz spectrum “will be minimal in 2021" because broadband service providers only recently started upgrading infrastructure for Wi-Fi 6, it said.