It's the next - fifth-generation of mobile internet connectivity promising much faster data download and upload speeds, wider coverage and more stable connections.

What will it enable us to do?

"Whatever we do now with our smartphones we'll be able to do faster and better," says Ian Fogg from OpenSignal, a mobile data analytics company.

"Think of smart glasses featuring augmented reality, mobile virtual reality, much higher quality video, the internet of things making cities smarter.

"But what's really exciting is all the new services that will be built that we can't foresee."

Imagine swarms of drones co-operating to carry out search and rescue missions, fire assessments and traffic monitoring, all communicating wirelessly with each other and ground base stations over 5G networks.

Similarly, many think 5G will be crucial for autonomous vehicles to communicate with each other and read live map and traffic data.

More prosaically, mobile gamers should notice less delay - or latency - when pressing a button on a controller and seeing the effect on screen. Mobile videos should be near instantaneous and glitch-free. Video calls should become clearer and less jerky. Wearable fitness devices could monitor your health in real time, alerting doctors as soon as any emergency arises.

The communications watchdog Ofcom suggests that in time 5G could offer speeds of 20Gbps (Link to Ofcom's paper).

Last Updated 09/06/2019

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