How fast is 5G?, What is 5G?

Some carriers have jumped the gun, claiming they are already offer 5G. It's actually only a faster and better version of current 4G LTE technologies. The advertising lies got so bad that the U.N. had to step in.




What is 5G?
Right now, 5G isn't defined. No one knows the final specifications yet. But the ITU has so far agreed on a few key requirements for 5G performance.

• No Call Drops — This is the biggest change for the regular mobile user. You will not drop calls or lose internet connectivity when you're switching between towers on a 5G network. The ITU says a 5G network is one where such mobile interruption time does not exist, so unless that specification is met, it's not 5G.
• Low Latency — 5G phones will have latency between 4ms and 1ms (the lower the better). Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the amount of time that your phone takes to send a signal to an internet server. The fastest for 4G is a latency of 50ms. Low latency will drastically improve experiences like augmented reality, or virtual reality with smart glasses.
• Battery Efficient — You've heard about how data connectivity is draining your phone's battery. The 5G networks will significantly reduce that with better "sleep" features. "Sleep" is when the phone isn't using the network.
• Works at 500 Km/h — The faster your vehicle is driving, the faster your phone is moving. This means your phone is changing mobile towers at a rapid rate. Current mobile networks can't handle these rapid handovers between towers. 5G will work even when you are in a high-speed train travelling at 500 Km/h.

How fast is 5G?

5G networks will have a real-world download rate of 100 Mb/s (Megabits per second) and upload rate of 50 Mb/s. That's about 12 MB of data download per second. An hour-long Netflix show in HD will download in roughly four minutes.

The ITU distinguishes between "peak data rates" (technically highest possible in lab settings) and "experienced data rates" (what users will get in real-world conditions).

5G will have peak data rates of 20 Gb/s (gigabits per second) downlink and 10 Gb/s uplink. In lab tests so far, Nokia and Samsung have managed downlink speeds of 10 Gb/s and 7.5 Gb/s, respectively.

The bottom line: it's really, really fast!

When will 5G phones and networks be available?

The estimate for regular consumers to get 5G phones is 2020. The U.S. will see the first lot of 5G-compliant devices in 2019, according to Intel and Ericsson executives. But the ITU's timeline puts 2018-2020 as a period of "defining the technology," so there might be some changes left.

That 2020 estimate is partly based on the mobile world's 10-year cycle of launching the next generation network. It started with analog 1G in 1982, moved to digital 2G in 1991, boosted to 3G in the 2000s, and landed on the current 4G networks since the 2010s.

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South Korean and Japanese carriers have announced they will launch commercial 5G services in 2019. Major European operators target launching 5G in at least one city in each of the EU Member States by 2020.