Onalytica just released a list of Top 100 5G Influencers.

Now, according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, an influencer is:

“one who exerts influence: a person who inspires or guides the actions of others…"

If that is the definition, a great influencer should “generate interest and guide actions” as objectively as possible. This is surely true of many names in that list but… the declarations that introduce it tell another story:

• “The potential of 5G for intuitive disruption will lead to new capabilities that few other modern technologies can rival…”
• “5G is… the foundation for all digital businesses moving into the future”
• “5G [will] blow the doors [of the manufacturing sector] open, driving a whole ‘nother cycle of innovation”
• “5G [will] undoubtedly disrupt the way we live and work”

That doesn’t seem influencing as much as…

• fandom: “the state or attitude of being an enthusiastic devotee”
• being fanboys: “extremely or overly enthusiastic fan of someone or something”

5G seems too often like the Kardashians

All too often, 5G seems famous for being famous. Famous because it will surely conquer the world, by surely enabling other technologies, that will surely conquer the world because 5G will surely conquer the world, Real Soon Now. Technologies like:

• Internet of Things, the new plastic, used to make billions of “smart” devices as useless as uselessly polluting.
• Self-driving cars that are everything but REALLY autonomous, and so hard to deliver as advertised that even their own top sellers are downsizing expectations.
• An industry 4.0, well connected to 5G, much less to reality

I would really, really like to see more “5G influencing” that is more balanced, and above all concretely connected to the reality of our time. That’s all I ask.