What Is 5G?

The first wave of 5G has just arrived.

- Sascha Segan

On April 3, Verizon started selling the world’s first 5G phone, the Moto Z3 with its attached Moto Mod. AT&T, meanwhile, has been quietly running trials of a 5G hotspot with businesses in 19 cities, getting ready for broader commercial availability later this spring.

We tested both of those systems to see what the early 5G experience is like. And remember: It’s early. Verizon’s 5G in Chicago, right now, only covers parts of downtown and seems to get about 300 feet of distance from each cell site. AT&T’s 5G in Dallas gave us 1.3Gbps speeds and about 600 feet of range—but only at two locations in the city. Neither system can do uploads on 5G yet, and neither has the low latency 5G promises. They’re the first step in many. (You can find more details on our testing later in this issue.)

5G is an investment for the next decade, and in previous mobile transitions, we’ve seen most of the big changes happening years after the first announcement. Take 4G, for instance. The first 4G phones in the US appeared in 2010. But the sorts of 4G applications that changed our world didn’t appear until later. Snapchat came in 2012, and Uber became widespread in 2013. Video calls over LTE networks also became widespread in the US around 2013.

So following that plan, while we’re getting a little bit of 5G right now, you should expect the big 5G applications to crop up around 2021 or 2022. Until then, things are going to be confusing, as wireless carriers jockey for customers and mind share.