In the beginning of April 2019, Verizon launched its 5G service. AT&T did the same in late 2018. Apple is biding its time, and they are going to enter the field at a later point in 2019. Wireless mobile telecommunications have been replacing landlines since the inception of the analog standards in the 80s. Jumping almost four decades ahead, we have 5G. Tailored to the necessities of big data, 5G ushers in an increase in capacity and lower latency for transmission of information. Bandwidth and reliability of cellular broadband will all be positively affected. Too difficult? Let’s try to put it this way: imagine you are a business with the capacity of scaling up your data transfer services for billions of devices (not millions) under the same financial conditions your business had to face before. If this still sounds too difficult, picture yourself as a user. How about the ability to download your favorite Netflix movie, in 4K, in a matter of seconds? Now, doesn’t that sound like a treat? 5G is all about an upscale in processing power and speed, on a scale of up to 100 times better than the performance 4G could provide. Proportion-wise, this is in line with the rate of improvements from 2G to 3G. Yet, it seems that our constant need for data does not really follow a law of diminishing returns. The launch of 5G, truth be told, has been all but painless. The potential of the new wireless standards, which are being described as one of the “next big things” in the field of hi-tech, is clear as day regardless. “One of the heralds, along with artificial intelligence, of this coming data age”, according to Steve Koenig. The senior director of market research for the Consumer Technological Association goes on to add: “Self-driving vehicles are emblematic of this data age, because with one single task, driving, you have massive amounts of data coming from the vehicle itself. A variety of sensors are collecting a lot of information to model its environment as it moves”. Consumers can expect 5G-ready phones and networks in a few months from now. It is very easy to foresee the advantage of 5G for businesses that cannot allow downtime or latency. Self-driving cars are still perceived as high-risk and in need of this blazing speed to ensure absolute safety. Benefits for the virtual and augmented reality – which need near-flawless rates of responsiveness, albeit for different reasons – also come to mind. Execution for these new technologies is the biggest problem, and scaling up to size is the biggest bottleneck of the execution itself. But 5G is not only about these new trends in innovation. There are people who are already doing their thing efficiently, and still can’t wait to tap into 5G: we’re talking about the eggheads working in the adult industry. And those who already took advantage of the economies of scale, like Pornhub’s owner MindGeek, might as well be the ones giggling the most behind the scenes. If you are not convinced, know that we are aware of at least two things: the revolution in 5G will not be paradigmatic. No shifts in the premises: no “radio-to-TV” leap. The original paradigm shift was exhausted the moment your phone and table superseded your PC, by their property of not being tethered to a desk. Afterwards, no step up from 2G up to 4.5G was as revolutionary. Improvements are almost purely operational. In basic terms, 5G is just a matter of multiplying the rate at which you gain information. Secondarily, 5G will affect users on mobile phones. Let’s take a look at the stats: the majority of Pornhub’s traffic comes from mobile, at 71.5% globally (54.4% on Android, 44.4% on iOS). Through a combination of MindGeek’s reliance on big data for marketing purposes, and the consumers’ needs of faster downloads, higher video quality, or more immersive content, the rewards for 5G are all there for porn consumers. And for a very, very old value proposition. But the adult industry as a whole is not as high risk as self-driving cars for controversy (at least nowadays), nor virtual reality (in terms of lack of penetration). It’s hardly waiting for 5G for a “possible” breakthrough: the breakthrough happened about two decades ago. The head honchos of the adult business already know that 5G will be integrated seamlessly, as long as the technology delivers even part of its promises, in what is a comparatively safer business model. As we saw in a featured previous article, we are consuming more and more adult content. If there is one obstacle, to yet another surge of revenues, is that AT&T is still not getting things right with their 5G launch. But we are close to another climax, one that took seven years after Indian telecommunication company Bharti Airtel launched the first 4G service, and the new race for better rates started. If you were excited before, you have one more reason to.
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