Once again: it’s not about being stingy.
I question LAN as a future-oriented technology. Your insights into 5G mobile communications are new to me. Personally, I tend to believe that communication technology (by that I mean everything that communicates, so devices as well, not just humans) is moving away from fixed locations toward maximum mobile flexibility. To put it radically:
Anyone who still has a landline phone at home today is already out of date. Remote work is another example. No location dependence, whether within the building or worldwide. The discussion here about LAN and bandwidth and please by cable reminds me of the story of telephone networks in industrial versus developing countries. The latter have basically skipped the technology of telephone networks entirely and only built mobile networks. Nobody there would still think of laying cables from house to house... Of course, the comparison might be a bit flawed, but I do see parallels.
Regarding 5G, I recommend the comment "Network: Why 5G is not better Wi-Fi" on Golem.de for an introduction.
From professional, direct experience, I can report that the hype around 5G, cloud, and IoT is slowly meeting reality.
The connection of IoT devices to the cloud is too slow and too expensive, the cloud itself is too costly. The current buzzword is Edge Computing, which basically means bringing as compact computing units as possible close to the workload (= the device) again so that latency and costs fit.
Here, 10-40 Gbit over copper or fiber plays a significant role, it’s affordable, it works, and it’s robust. It is interference-free and works reliably not only within 500m of the next cell tower.
Regarding remote work, I can also report on the frequency of connection problems reported by users (=employees) from home offices. In 90% of the cases, the problem lies in the home infrastructure when Junior is currently streaming Netflix and Papa’s video conference then stutters. Best case with Wi-Fi in between. We politely but firmly reject such cases at the service desk and refer to an existing policy that staff are only allowed to work from home if the necessary technical precautions are demonstrated in the form of a self-declaration. We require an internet connection with at least 10/0.5 Mbit/s down/upload and continuous wired connections. If the employee does not agree to this, there is no more home office.
Developing countries lack the necessary investment in wired infrastructures. Another hindrance is sparsely populated areas, which are cheaper to cover with radio solutions. The construction of such an infrastructure is also faster to accomplish than digging cables.
In densely populated areas, the lack of fiber optic expansion also hampers the radio network, see current reports on the Telefonica network, which on the one hand delivers the worst coverage but also the worst bandwidth. If you hook up such a mast to an old DSL line, that is no surprise. No fiber, no LTE/5G that is also powerful.
