5G will deliver faster speeds and lower latency. But just how much time will it save us compared with 4G?
HighSpeedInternet.com compared America's current average speeds and latency on 4G to what they'll be with 5G and found that consumers will save 23 hours of loading time—almost one full day—per month while browsing social media, gaming online, streaming music, and downloading TV shows and movies.
With 5G, movie downloads will decrease from 7 minutes to just 6 seconds. You'll save 2 minutes and 20 seconds a day waiting for social media content to load, 7 minutes when you're downloading an HD movie, nearly 7 hours on large game downloads, and 3 hours when downloading a Spotify library with 10,000 songs.
"With 4G, the cell towers (network nodes) are designed to reach as broad of an area as possible," HighSpeedInternet.com stated. "In the simplest terms, 5G is like having high-powered Wi-Fi routers dispersed all over the city to function as the network nodes. So, your internet provider's network will function more like your home network, but much faster."
5G nodes can't cover the same area as a cell tower but will transmit data at higher speeds. To make up for the reduced coverage area, companies will need to install more 5G nodes. All four major US carriers—Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile—have said they're launching 5G either this year or early next.
Verizon recently launched its 5G home broadband service in parts of four major US cities: Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. AT&T expects to hook up mobile 5G in parts of a dozen cities before the end of the year: Houston, Jacksonville, Louisville, New Orleans, San Antonio, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, and Waco, Texas. Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile intend to debut the super-fast service early next year.