About

Ian Fogg is a tech industry analyst and futurist covering AR/XR, strategic technology (ML/AI, 5G evolution, machine vision), technology company strategies, including sustainability. Before becoming an analyst he worked in product and marketing roles at mobile device makers and telecom operators.

Roles have included: VP Analysis at Opensignal, Senior Director at IHS Markit (now Omdia), Forrester, Jupiter Research, Hutchison 3, Cable & Wireless and Psion. See more on:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianfogg/
X / Twitter: @ianfogg42
Threads: @ianfogg42
Mastodon: ianfogg@mastodon.social
Bluesky: @ianfogg.bsky.social

He is widely quoted in the press and is an energetic speaker and presenter. Here is a selection of media coverage:

Onalytica listed Ian Fogg in its Who’s Who in 5G? report in 2022 and also ranked him as one of the top 100 5G influencers in 2019.

Mobile World Live – September 20, 2023
How fast can Foxconn gear up in India?
Moving beyond making only older and simpler iPhone models, Fogg noted newer releases sporting more advanced connectivity, cameras, displays, case designs and other features are harder to make.

Light Reading – September 12, 2023
T-Mobile, Charter eye spectrum sharing in 42GHz band
“mmWave 5G offers a way to improve on the current situation because the bands have extremely high capacity that are able to support very large amounts of data traffic and users, although in a small area.”

Fierce Wireless – September 11, 2023
Qualcomm renews iPhone chip pact with Apple through 2026
“The iPhone has supported AR experiences for years – since the first version of ARKit in 2017. Now that Apple has unveiled the Vision Pro headset, we will likely see moves to add features to other Apple devices to enable them to work seamlessly with Vision Pro and build on Apple’s ecosystem strategy.”

Light Reading – September 5, 2023
Japan’s telco operators make steady progress on satellite initiatives
Opensignal’s Fogg said Japan’s telco operators should assess how to approach smartphone satellite services. “Whether they should partner with some of the players involved in announcements to date, expand on their existing relationships for RAN backhaul or IoT to launch their own offering.”

BusinessWorld – May 18, 2023
Mobile app business affected by poor connectivity
“When there’s poor connectivity, users spend less time in apps as they become dissatisfied with the experience and are less likely to retain apps on their device.”

Evening Standard – May 16, 2023
Are you prepared for the UK’s 3G network to be switched off?
“3G falls between stools,” Fogg said. “It’s not widely used by a lot of people, like 2G still is, and it’s nowhere near as efficient as 4G or 5G.”

Mobile World Live – March 23, 2023
Arm tipped for business model overhaul
“Short-term, there are no viable alternatives to Arm in smartphones, longer-term this will increase R&D efforts by Arm customers to find good enough alternatives.”

BBC – December 2, 2022
‘5G makes my phone pretty worthless‘
“Companies talking up 5G are often thinking not just about what’s here now but what we’ll be having in 18 months, two or three years time.”

Light Reading – September 7, 2022
The 3 biggest iPhone 14 takeaways: Satellites, eSIMs and Dish
“…mobile users in the US spend roughly 1% of their time disconnected from cellular signals”

Tech Monitor – August 18, 2022
The cost of living crisis is causing chaos in the smartphone market
“…5G is such an improvement in experience that a consumer with a 5G device is probably going to have a great experience with it, and will be more likely to cut back on spending in other areas.”

sdxcentral – August 3, 2022
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile 5G Plans Spectrum Specific
“What we’ve seen in the U.S. and globally is where carriers have got large amounts of new spectrum, typically above 3 GHz, in the 3 GHz to 6 GHz range, or in some cases millimeter wave that they can they can deploy and use for 5G services, that’s where we’ve seen the big uplift in 5G experience over older technologies like 4G.”

Evening Standard – July 14, 2022
Meet the phone startup taking on Apple — so can the nothing handset really rival the iPhone?
“A new phone may have great specs on paper but is it put together effectively? There’s a lot of expertise in how you integrate things.”

Mobile World Live – June 10, 2022
Singapore newcomer TPG lags rivals
Opensignal VP of analysis Ian Fogg told Mobile World Live the two factors behind TPG’s lower scores are fewer 4G base stations than rivals and users spending more time on sub-1GHz frequencies, which offer less capacity and reduced potential for carrier aggregation than higher bands.

RCR Wireless – May 16, 2022
5G surpasses public Wi-Fi for mobile experiences: Opensignal
“Already, users see a better multiplayer mobile gaming experience and faster average download speeds with 5G than with Public Wifi. The main limitation for 5G now is the reach of 5G services but this is changing. As a result, users must no longer assume cellular is worse than Wifi, and should try 5G if their Wifi connectivity is poor.”

Fierce Wireless – March 17, 2022
Vodafone UK prepares for 3G shutdown in 2023
Fierce reached out to Opensignal analyst Ian Fogg, who explained that the difference in the U.K. is that carriers have been keeping their 2G networks (GSM) working and they’re planning to switch off 3G first. “This means that even phones that lack 4G/LTE or that have 4G/LTE but lack VoLTE (4G voice) can still make calls,” he said.

BBC – November 5, 2021
5G chega ao Brasil: o que é nova tecnologia e como ela muda sua vida
“Whatever we do now with our smartphones, we will be able to do faster and better,” says Ian Fogg of Opensignal, a mobile data analysis company. “Think of smart glasses with augmented reality, mobile virtual reality, much higher quality video, the internet of things that make cities smarter. But what’s really exciting are all the new services that we can’t predict.”

The Washington Post – September 24, 2021
5G is a little better than before, but don’t rush to upgrade your phone just yet
“There will be chunks of new capacity coming available,” Fogg said. “That should mean that we’ll see jumps in the 5G experience on all the U.S. carriers from December onwards.”

S&P Global – July 20, 2021
5G reliability, customer retention are top concerns ahead of wireless earnings
When asked how these milestones could translate financially for these companies, Opensignal analyst Ian Fogg said continued improvements to the user experience could make customers think twice before switching to a competitor. Evidence that networks are reliable could encourage customer loyalty.
“As U.S. carriers improve user experience, it could help with churn numbers as more people stay with [their carriers],” Fogg said.

BBC – April 20, 2021
Apple event: AirTag, iPad and iMac lead line-up
“AirTags are official. Smart to make the tag customizable – Apple really understands mobile/wearable/personal products. Privacy will help this to appeal to those that would reject other tags.”

RCR Wireless – April 1, 2021
Data shows that mmWave 5G is nearly thirty times faster than public Wi-Fi
“Device makers that include 5G cellular connectivity […] can lift many more users out of the public Wi-Fi slow lane.”

9to5Mac – March 15, 2021
Opensignal report claims iPhone 12 is slower than almost every Android phone in 5G/4G speed tests
“…because previous iPhones were behind Android when it came to 4G speeds with Intel instead of Qualcomm modems, iPhone 12 brought a bigger 2.3x increase in 5G vs 4G speeds in the US than competitors like Samsung, OnePlus, etc. saw from the jump to 5G.“

Capacity Media – February 15, 2021
Realme handset range aims to democratise 5G in India
“Cheaper 5G phones are an important enabler for the operators in India to launch a 5G service and get a reasonable uptake of people on that service. If you think back to Jio’s 4G launch one of the things they did there was launch the Jio phone to enable that service.”

Fierce Wireless – January 25, 2021
5G download speeds in U.S. at meager 47-58 Mbps range
“The most popular spectrum type globally is 3.5 GHz,” he said. “Most networks globally have used that as their only 5G band. And that’s why in most countries download speeds are five to six times faster than 4G with an average of 300 Mbps.”

Light Reading – December 3, 2020
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile are neck and neck in 5G speeds
“As US carriers build on their initial 5G launches, the 5G experience will improve, especially as new 5G spectrum becomes available in the US that allows carriers here to emulate the 5G experience in other countries where similar 5G spectrum has already been deployed.”

Wired – October 14, 2020
How Apple Built 5G Into Its New iPhones
Apple’s support for 5G across all four of its new iPhones “is really unusual,” says Ian Fogg, VP of analysis at Opensignal.

CNBC – October 12, 2020
Americans might not be able to take full advantage of the 5G iPhone
“In the U.S., when you see millimeter wave, and you see low-band, that isn’t 5G, that’s just two parts of 5G,” said Ian Fogg, vice president of analysis at Opensignal. “5G will have mid-band, too. What we’re seeing in the U.S. right now is version .9 or version 1.0, it’s going to improve a lot.”

Mobile World Live – October 7, 2020
Could Apple’s App Store row hurt its 5G entry?
“the 5G iPhone will probably kick-start and accelerate the 5G market in the US.”
With cloud gaming deemed one of the most important 5G use cases for many users, it would be “a real pain point” if providers of those services are not able to offer them to iPhone users, noted Fogg.”

Financial Times – October 4, 2020
Samsung mounts 5G offensive as countries review Huawei networks
Mr Fogg noted that previous changes in network equipment technology — which occur roughly once every 10 years and require sharp increases in capital expenditure — have typically sparked periods of upheaval as telecoms groups switch equipment suppliers, companies consolidate and erstwhile incumbents fall by the wayside.

BBC – September 30, 2020
Google Pixel phone ‘designed for economic downturn’
“Bundling three months of Stadia Pro cloud gaming with 5G Pixel phones is smart, because gamers benefit in particular from the 5G experience,” commented Ian Fogg from OpenSignal.
“But cloud gaming is still ‘early’ tech for mobile.”

RCR Wireless – September 24, 2020
Absence of a 5G iPhone has held back 5G adoption in the US, OpenSignal says
“If Apple’s 5G launch follows the trend of existing 5G smartphone handset brands, with a speed increase of 5G of 1.6 – 1.9 times faster than 4G, then 2020’s 5G iPhone owners will see a bigger generational leap in mobile network experience than the iPhone has had for at least eight years when 2012’s iPhone 5 marked the jump from 3G to 4G,” Fogg wrote.

Le Monde – September 17, 2020
Tour du monde des réseaux mobiles 5G : les particuliers ne sont pas conquis
Le choix de la patience est d’autant plus sage que dans quelques années, la qualité de la 5G devrait s’améliorer, comme avant elle celle de la 4G, qui a connu des améliorations spectaculaires au fil du temps. On verra peut-être ainsi l’amélioration du « temps de réponse » de la 5G, longtemps vanté par les défenseurs de la 5G, mais « inchangé pour le moment », comme l’observe Ian Fogg.

Telecom TV – August 5, 2019