BT Consumer CEO: ‘As an industry, we didn’t do the best job of launching 5G’

BT Consumer CEO: ‘As an industry, we didn’t do the best job of launching 5G’

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The CEO of BT's consumer division, Marc Allera has acknowledged that the initial launch of 5G did not meet customer expectations, citing a lack of fulfilment of the high hopes set at the technology's debut.

Speaking at the 2024 Britain Connected conference in London today [11 September 2024], Allera said: "We didn’t do the best job launching 5G initially. We set expectations that weren’t met in the early days.”

However, with the introduction of 5G Standalone (5GSA), the telecoms giant revealed it is optimistic about finally delivering the full promise of 5G.

Unlike earlier iterations that relied on legacy systems, 5GSA is a dedicated network built with modern technology designed to support the next wave of services and applications, including AI, cloud gaming and immersive content.

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This new infrastructure is expected to revolutionise both consumer and business experiences in the coming years, the CEO of BT's consumer group, EE and Plusnet stated.

He added: “With 5GSA, we can start delivering on the real promise of 5G to consumers and businesses. It’s a dedicated network, built on new technology, not legacy systems, which will power the next generation of services and applications.

“The tricky part is how we communicate this to consumers without just saying "here’s 5GSA, pay £5 more."

“We need to bring the experiences, products, and services to life, and we’re working on that over the coming weeks and months.”

Meanwhile, he added there has been great progress in rolling out fibre and 5G, but there's still a lot more to do.

“This requires long-term planning, coordination across government and industry, and a focus on solving these problems together, rather than working in isolation.

“This industry has a good history of collaboration, particularly with network sharing and rural network initiatives. We compete fiercely for customers, but we also know when it makes sense to collaborate.”


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