Could the Growth of 5G Finally Trigger the Extinction of Analog Phones? | Articles | Chief Technology Officer | Innovation Enterprise
The telephone was invented in the mid-19th century. The most
modern phones bear almost no resemblance to their historic cousins. Mobile
phones have so many sophisticated features that you would expect analog phones
to be obsolete already.
Strangely, this is
not the case. In fact, around one in five phones are still analog. If you read
the survey methodologies from companies like Gallup, you will find that around
a third of all survey respondents are reached with landlines.
There is still a small yet persistent demand for analog
phones in many industries. Mobile phone manufacturers are trying to capture
these markets and drive analog phones to extinction. New 5G technology could
help then reach this goal.
The unexpectedly stubborn survival
of analog phones in the 21st-century
In 2014, Internet
industry analyst and Harvard Business Review author Larry Downes wrote an
article titled “The
End of the Line for the Analog Phone.” He pointed out that only 20% of
households still have analog phones. The FCC has been trying to move towards
eliminating the infrastructure for this seemingly archaic technology. They have
found more roadblocks than they originally expected, so analog phones remain in
demand.
The reasoning behind
the attempt to discontinue landline networks was predicated on the same logic
that the FCC used to get rid of analog television signals. The demand for the
services was dropping in the digital era.
However, Downes and
the FCC have found pushing analog phones to the graveyard of human innovation
has proven to be more challenging than expected. They have found that some
organizations depend on analog technology and won’t easily make the transition.
Nursing homes,
hospitals, hospitality companies, universities, elevator operators and
emergency operators are some of the organizations that still rely heavily on
analog phones. Although analog phones have very basic features, they have a
huge selling point that fancier mobile phones can’t deliver on – reliability. A
hospital can’t risk a call getting dropped while trying to save a patient’s
life. For all of the impressive features that mobile phones offer, they still
can’t compete with analog phones on this essential selling point.
However, new advances
in mobile technology are helping phase out the need for analog phones. One of
these developments is the emergence of 5G technology.
Is 5G technology going to finally
overturn the need for analog phones?
Samsung released
a press statement about the rapid development of 5G technology. 5G networks
didn’t hit the markets until last year. This year, they are finally starting to
go mainstream.
Samsung isn’t the only major company that has commented on
the development of 5G technology. Ooma has talked about the benefits of 5G and VoIP phone systems.
We don’t have much data on 5G yet, but it is clear that it
is going to disrupt many industries. A lot of the articles written so far have
focused on the impact of 5G on mobile technology, machine learning and other
advanced technology markets. However, it is likely that more archaic industries
will also be affected.
It is possible that
5G technology will finally render analog phones obsolete. It is far more
dependable than traditional wireless networks. However, it is possible that it still
won’t quite make the reliability standard that certain industries depend on.
This just means that the future of illusions of wireless technology will
eventually achieve this goal.
The lifetime of
analog phones is limited. The question is whether 5G technology will finally
ensure its demise.