Fifth generation cellular networks are currently under active research and development – with some experimental trial deployments by Verizon, AT&T, and Google lately making the news.
The goal of 5G networks will be to enable ridiculously fast peak cellular data rates of over 10 Gbps, with network latency as low as 1ms.
This represents a 50x increase in network throughput and capacity compared to the fastest current 4G/LTE networks.
5G will enable a whole range of next generation applications ranging from autonomous connected vehicles to augmented reality to ultra-HD video streaming.
The actual technologies and frequency bands that will enable 5G have yet to be finalized by standards bodies – but 5G will likely take advantage of many chunks of spectrum ranging from long range UHF frequencies up through short range extremely high 60 GHz frequencies.
Though 5G technologies and trials will be increasingly in the news, the technical standards are being finalized in 2018 with the first commercial networks deployed in select markets by the end of 2018. However, wide spread consumer use is not likely until late 2019 at the earliest.
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