For those of us that remember the dark times where 2G or 3G was the fastest mobile speeds there were, 4G speeds were basically a Godsend. The new standard for mobile speeds is 4G LTE and while the speeds vary depending on what carrier you have, speeds average in between 30 and 40 MBPS for the big carriers (except Sprint which is far lower).
At these speeds that’s more than enough to stream Netflix or download an app in under a minute so why overhaul a global infrastructure to make it a little faster? The answer is that 5G isn’t just a little faster, it’s exponentially faster. 5G speeds have been shown to be anywhere between 30 and 50 times faster than current technology. That is the difference between downloading a 1GB movie in 3 minutes and downloading it in 15 seconds.
In addition to increasing speeds, 5G technology is supposed to be much more energy efficient. Some projections indicate that battery life of phones can increase by as much as 10 times longer. The biggest front runners when it comes to mobile technology are Verizon and AT&T who have already begun trial tests of the technology. A Verizon representative claims that they’ll have the technology to roll out by 2017 or 2018 and they plan to convert their entire network by 2020.
You might think there is no way they would be able to pull off that timeline but Verizon was the first to adopt 4G technology back in 2008 and they had a full rollout by 2010. The other front runner, AT&T, have also made similar claims to their testing and rollout timelines for 5G. China and Japan is also heavily investing into 5G technology and they both have similar timelines to the US front runners. But most experts predict that Verizon will be the first on the market with their 5G infrastructure.
When 4G speeds came out it spurred an explosive growth in smartphone sales and usage to the point where there are over 2 billion current smartphone users around the world. With new technology like virtual reality and self driving cars, 5G technology is more essential than ever. Only time will tell how this shift in data speeds will spur new technologies and how we live our lives.
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I am so excited for 5G to be adopted. Thinking that 5G is exponentially faster than 4G gives me chill.
Very interesting to know about the 5G which is going to be released in 2017. I think users can watch movies in their smartphones itself while on the go.
Oh my God! How many Gs will come? We are getting too much addicted to technology. If it goes at this rate, it is just a matter of time to get 10G network.
Wow! How fastly we are developing our technology? 5G can be released in 2017 it is really a big news. Iam waiting for 5G and I want to taste that experience of speed.
Very useful information we have here. The figure which shows the difference between 2G,3G,4G and 5G clearly explains how the technology growing with rapid speed.
This technology sounds very exciting. I’m all for it until I learn how much it will cost me to use it.
Well, as usual Verizon again will take the lead in terms of speed. Nevertheless, I can’t wait for 5G. Also, if it’s more energy efficient, then that would be wonderful as Smart phones drain faster with multimedia and net browsing.
Awesome! I’m excited for the faster speeds that will come along with 5G technology. I just signed up for Netflix and will be upgrading my dinosaur black berry to an iphone today as well! Hopefully, when 5G is here I can use the faster download times to watch Netflix on my new phone!
This is a very exciting news. Technology has developed surprisingly significant in the past decades.
I am not huge on phones but this looks like a nice one. I think that it is a great upgrade from the four. I have an HTC but use to own an LG phone and I thought they were nice phones.