You see it mentioned in countless phone commercials, and your phone might use it. But do you know...
5G is the latest standard for mobile internet networks.
Each cell had a tower to receive radio waves from phones nearby and transmit them to a switchboard operator.
A year later, Motorola developer Marty Cooper invented the first cell phone: the DynaTAC. It came to market in 1983, the same year that Ameritech-a company broken off from the Bell System monopoly before it was acquired by AT&T-launched the nation's first 1G network.
5G mobile networks can transfer data at more than a gigabit per second, vs. 4g networks that typically offer speeds closer to 50 megabits per second.
Engineers hope 5G will eventually connect more than just phones.
Another innovation keeps 5G from killing your phone's battery so that you get full use of that data speed.
The feature, called "Adaptive bandwidth," lets your phone automatically switch to faster, more battery-guzzling internet speeds when you need them, and preserve power when you're just doing low-data activities like checking email.
Lots of the advances associated with 5G involved the infrastructure of the network, like transitioning from a cell tower system to a denser grid of "Small cells": which are radio transceivers the size of pizza boxes that can be mounted onto street lights or buildings.
Even 3G phones still work, though that's likely to change soon-for the 17% of US subscribers currently using 3G, they should expect their phones to stop working sometime in 2022.
Your 4G phone will be about as useful as an original iPhone that ran on 2G, or a Motorola DynaTac brick from the 80s, which supported 1G.The big questions with 5G are when we'll get it, and what we'll do with it once it's standard.