The consumer internet revolution of the past 20 years has brought us many amazing things, from online search engines to phones doubling as personal assistants. But as dramatic as that change was, it’s nothing compared with the coming evolution of 5G wireless and the internet of things, which will involve putting data mining chips in everything from your fridge to your car.
This will not only create entirely new businesses, but also allow advertisers to reach you in ever more targeted ways (they’ll know not only where you are, but if your garden needs watering or if you are running out of milk). The economic stakes are high. As rich as big tech companies are, there is exponentially more wealth to be created in this new 5G world. Yet the technology that underpins it all is being threatened by a battle over which businesses and industries will seize which slice of this juicy pie.
Traditionally, companies such as Apple, Google, Samsung and others that make wireless devices have paid the developers of crucial wireless technologies — including Qualcomm, Nokia and Ericsson — a licence fee to use their chips and other essential patented intellectual property (IP). Standard-setting bodies in the US and Europe designated which technologies were essential to building the underlying system, and then allowed innovators to patent them provided they would offer “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” access to all market players.