5G poses many challenges that telecom marketers haven’t faced before. Networks are evolving, software is eating everything, new spectrum is being deployed, and network equipment is being commoditized and open sourced.

We’re being told that things are getting faster, smarter and more secure. There’s a lot going on and it’s happening all at once. But nothing is what it seems nor simple to understand.

Let’s consider the who, what, when, where, why, and how of 5G. What is it? Who is it for? When, where, and how do we get 5G? Why do we need it?

The answers are messy and until marketers have a clear and compelling story to tell, the telecom industry is going to have a rough go of it for the next couple years. Operators and vendors have a lot of work to do if 5G has any chance of actually making things easier.

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile US, and Sprint have all launched 5G service in some cities — a total of 40 markets to date. Here’s where it gets complicated though: None of those respective networks are the same — costs are a moving target, devices are expensive and scattered, and availability is limited and in most cases still nonexistent.

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile US’ initial 5G markets are riding on millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, which boasts theoretical speeds in the range of 1 Gb/s but the service travels extremely short distances. Signal strength on high-band spectrum is finicky and it only works on certain smartphones with chips that support mmWave. Sprint’s early 5G markets are powered by mid-band spectrum (2.5 GHz), which helps the operator claim the largest 5G footprint to date, and it also relies exclusively on specialized devices.

As if that isn’t confusing enough, availability and pricing is also a mess. T-Mobile US and Sprint have 5G service available on their most expensive plans and Verizon charges an additional $10 per month to customers that want access to 5G.

AT&T, the first nationwide operator to deploy a standards-based mobile 5G network, has been vague about its plans for pricing 5G although it’s likely to charge a premium when it’s more widely available. For now AT&T only offers 5G service to its business customers — individuals like you and I are out of luck. AT&T’s early 5G markets will have been active for almost a year before regular customers can buy and use a 5G-capable smartphone on its network. So, just to recap: AT&T has a 5G network running in 20 markets, the most of any nationwide operator, but very few people can use it. Why? Who knows.

5G is a considerable upgrade and almost everyone will benefit, but not now and probably not next year either. The first wave of 5G is a beta. True 5G requires networks to deploy on high- (above 6 GHz), mid- (1 GHz-6 GHz), and low-band (sub-1 GHz) spectrum. Devices and chipmakers need to support all of those bands too. Finally, there’s significant work yet to be done on delivering standalone 5G networks riding on a 5G mobile core with fully automated (software-driven) functions.

Until all of those things happen, 5G will be a confused mixture of modern, old, and incompatible elements. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily. Technology is about taking risks and putting small dents in the universe.

5G follows in that vein. It will deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and new applications, but as of now it raises a lot of questions without simple answers. The hype for 5G is years ahead of reality because marketers don’t have much else to go on. They need a better story to tell and one that makes sense (without requiring a crash course in network technologies) to the public at large.

5G may be the most over-hyped technology advancement in the history of telecommunications but the same will also be true for 6G, whenever that comes around. Marketers are in a tough spot during these network transitions. 5G is an exciting and promising new technology, and that’s a relatively easy sell. But there’s little consensus about what it is, how and where it will be used, and why we need it in the first place.

Don’t tell us it’s going to be cool. Show us. We can wait. We’re not in a big rush to buy new smartphones anyway.