Mr. Marcus Matthews:

I will give a layman's description of 5G. The current 5G involves a software upgrade to 4G hardware, which is why the technical term is 5G New Radio. New radio code has been added to the software - it is not new hardware. This is part of the reason industry leaders like the deputy chairman of Huawei have said that consumers will experience no material difference between 5G and 4G. The chief technology officer of T-Mobile USA gave a presentation to the Federal Communications Commission and explained that it had only achieved a 19% performance increase with low-band spectrum, which is the band that relates to rural connectivity. It is difficult to see how 5G can significantly help address Ireland's connectivity gap.