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Tim asked: “I want to know if you have any information on 5G on cellular phones. What benefits will it bring?”
Tim, the dates for 5G to hit the consumer market keep changing, it’s very early to really guess, but they vary from the early 2020s to “in a year or two” which is probably less likely.
5G is expected to bring speeds at least 10 times faster than the current 4G LTE standard, some say as much as 100 times faster. The most realistic estimates claim that we’ll be getting gigabit speeds on our phones in good coverage areas (think the kind of areas where we can get 100 mbps on LTE), and slower but faster than current speeds in other areas.
Lower latency is also expected, as well as lower battery use. Lower latency is also expected, as well as lower battery use.
What all of that means is that, yes, your videos may buffer less and your websites may load faster, but 5G will likely mostly be huge for things like Internet of Things devices and VR.
Instant high quality access to every device out in the real world can bring about even more interactions between, for example, cars on the road to warn each other of obstacles they see (several manufacturers already have cars on the road that can talk to each other), or we could control drones on the other half of the world the way we can now on direct local connections.
The promise of 5G is an even more connected world, but this time not just us connected to each other, but our machines better connected connected to each other and to us as well.
Keep in mind that 5G is not around the corner, there’s not even a standard for how to deploy it yet, and it will probably take a little while for it to reach every area even after it starts to be rolled out. If you’re thinking about holding off on a phone upgrade to wait for 5G, you may want to go ahead and buy now.