Whenever people talk about companies involved in 5G, carriers like Verizon and AT&T are often the first names people think of. We've heard a lot of investors, both individual and institution, think of carriers as a good choice to invest due to potential 5G upside. But are they really?

The response given by Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf last week when being asked about the driving force and killer applications of 5G is a good reminder that carriers may not be such a good bet for investors looking for the most upside:

"The first wave for 5G, I call it the more G wave, essentially is we're going to give you more capacity and more data rate for cellular. And everybody asked me what's the killer app? Actually, the killer app is capacity and the fact that my cost per bit as an operator is going down dramatically. If I have that and my competitor doesn't have it, I'm in a great position. But what really drives action is, if I feel like I'm going to be in the other situation" - Steven Mollenkopf

If you are running a business where you have to constantly worry about falling behind your competitors if you are not investing fast enough, we'll be very careful before investing a single dollar. There, of course, will be winners and losers among carriers just like every prior G transition, but we don’t believe 5G itself is changing the nature of the business, It's how different carriers handle the 5G transition that matters.