26th Dec 2018
5G won’t just bring faster phones. It will shape every type of tech it touches
Imagine playing a co-op shooter like Fortnite Battle Royale or PUBG on a VR headset — in real-time, with zero lag — all through your phone, while traveling in a fleet of self-driving cars going 200 miles an hour. Sit tight, because the future of gaming, and everything else, is about to change forever.
If you look at the corner of your phone, you’re probably used to seeing a little indicator that says 4G LTE, 3G, or, god forbid, 2G, and you’ve come to recognize that it probably has something to do with your phone’s connection to your mobile network. The higher the “G,” the faster the connection.
It’s pretty easy to follow: The G stands for generation, and each subsequent generation refers to a specific minimum speed, connectivity, and reliability necessary to classify the network as that particular generation. 1G let us talk to each other, 2G let us send messages, 3G gave us data and internet, and 4G/LTE made it a whole lot faster.
But all those networks will be things of the past, because on the horizon is 5G. And while you may be thinking that 5G is just a little faster, a little more reliable, and a little newer, it’s actually more than that. It’s a massive breakthrough that’s going to change the way devices connect to the internet, and more importantly, to each other. In fact, as 5G rolls out over the next two years, it’s going to change everything that uses a wireless connection; at this point, it is pretty much everything. So, what’s so special about a 5G future?