Remember 5G hype? Here's what's actually happening now

The 5G hype of the mid-2010s is downright embarrassing to think back on. 5G was predicted to unlock an instant revenue gusher for telephone companies, while consumers' lives would be transformed by high-speed, low-latency connections that enabled self-driving cars, the metaverse and remote-control surgery. Of course, the reality has been different. Consumers don't care about 5G. They don't even know if their phones are 5G-enabled. And telephone companies are still struggling financially as they seemingly always have done. It would be easy to assume that 5G is a failure. The reality is more nuanced. 5G is doing well in some areas, even as initial predictions about its success proved off the mark. In particular, 5G has seen surprising success as a medium for fixed wireless access.