Monday, February 20, 2023

Does Early 5G Cause Growth, or Merely Reflect It?

This illustration of 5G deployment globally illustrates a point. Places where technology is widely deployed also tend to be the places where new technology gets deployed first.


source: Ookla 


Generally speaking, such places also are where economic activity is strong, national and individual incomes are higher and where measures of wealth are higher as well. 


While it might be hoped that early 5G deployment has a causal relationship to economic growth, it might be more correct to say that early 5G deployment reflects already-existing economic growth. 


The oft-mentioned value of early 5G availability as a driver of economic results might be exactly the inverse of truth. As the picture illustrates, 5G has been deployed early where nations and economies already were advanced. 


In other words, early 5G deployment reflects development, rather than creating it. 


Infrastructure tends to be correlated with economic results, to be sure. But it might be the case that pre-existing growth led to infrastructure creation, rather than the other way around.


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