Drawing parallels between 5G and brownies

I have been hearing about 5G since I started my career as a telecom engineer in 2014. It felt as though 5G was the redemption that telecom operators (now referred as communication service providers) were waiting for, the solution to all problems and challenges, just like a brownie after a bad day.

When I was browsing through e-commerce sites to buy a smartphone for my father in 2019, he was quick to add that he wanted a 5G capable smartphone. It all seemed ready to see the light of the day, just when the pandemic struck.

Well, we all know the rest of the story (CSPs had to improve their existing network to meet the demands, 5G auctions got postponed, liquidity issues etc). We couldn't get the brownie (5G). In reality, we needed the brownie (5G) now more than ever.

We had to make do with what we had. Essentially, some leftover dark chocolate, flour (existing infrastructure), available chocolate flavoured health drink (existing spectrum) and in some cases, dutch processed cocoa powder (mid-band spectrum). Some folks didn't have an OTG or microwave, so they made brownies with saucepan or pressure cookers (O-RAN) which are multi-purpose wherein other food items can also be cooked (2G,3G,4G).

Since this recipe to make the brownies worked, it was enhanced and popularized by the use of social media (AWS, Azure, Google cloud). There were many suggestions on what to bake next and how to do it (industry verticals and use cases).

I must admit, these brownies are delicious but I still wait for the day I can order fudgy brownies from the patisserie, because that's the real deal (5G standalone).