5G is a term that has been used too casually in the telecommunications industry for the past year. Many people wonder what 5G is and whether they should buy a 5G phone.
SummaryFeesPrototype Phone5G AvailabilityBetter Wait5G is an array of emerging technologies collectively used to achieve speeds of 1 gigabit per second or more. The average 4G speed across all carriers is around 31 Mbps and would make 5G speeds, at the very least, thirty times faster than current average 4G speeds.
5G being rolled out by Verizon and T-mobile is available in a handful of cities in the United States, and phones that can use these technologies will hit the market in 2019. The question is whether buying a new 5G-capable phone worth it. in 2019.
When 4G LTE was first rolled out, it covered only a few major cities, then all major cities, and eventually covered the majority of coverage areas of all networks, especially rural areas. Still, it took time to move from coverage of major cities to coverage of rural areas.
With 5G, deployment will take longer than with 3G and 4G LTE due to the peculiarities of the technology used for 5G. 5G uses a technology called millimeter waves which are capable of extremely high speeds but struggle to travel long distances and penetrate solid surfaces like the walls of houses.
This will make 5G deployment extremely tricky and specialized to the point where multiple small cells emitting millimeter waves will need to be strategically deployed to cover an area currently covered by a single cell tower emitting 4G LTE. Scaling this technology will be difficult in situations such as highway travel or rural living. 5G will only be available in a few select locations in 2019, and for most areas it won't be available. For this reason, buying a 5G-enabled phone probably won't be worth the money.
5G will eventually be mainstream and available in the US and other countries, but for now, it's just another buzzword for a technology that has yet to see the light of day. 5G won't be widely available until at least 2020, and by then prices for 5G phones will have come down and hopefully the same will apply to 5G data plans.
Those who buy 5G phones and data plans in 2019 can expect to pay more than they are paying now. For 2019, we recommend saving or spending your money on something useful that doesn't include a 5G smartphone.
Image credit:3D graphic image by Quince Creative
