5G stands for “fifth generation”, or the fifth generation of cellular network technology. The first generation came way back in the 1980s when the very first mobile phones delivered analogue voice signals. 2G followed in the early 1990s, with the introduction of digital voice connections. 

Then in the early 2000s, we got 3G, which enabled mobile data and the Internet on your phone. A decade later came 4G LTE which let you get emails, WhatsApp, and Spotify downloads on the go through its mobile broadband connectivity.  

5G isn’t just a step up from 4G. It’s a whole new type of mobile connection. 4G has top speeds of about 100 Mbps and average speeds of about 25 Mbps. Under ideal conditions, 5G hits top speeds of between 10 and 20 Gbps, and average speeds of about 200 Mbps. Bottom line? 5G is about 10 times faster than 4G… or 100 times faster, if the conditions are right! 

Connection speed isn’t an exact science, of course. Those speeds vary depending on how far you are from a mast, which spectrum you’re using, and how many people around you are using the network. 

How fast is 5G? 

That difference in speed is mostly down to the difference in latency. In 4G you’re dealing with 60 to 100 milliseconds’ latency; while in 5G it’s just 5 seconds. That makes a massive, massive difference for experiences like gaming, live streaming, and remote robotics. So… the lag you keep blaming for your Fortnite eliminations? That’s not a thing with 5G. 

Another huge improvement is the number of people who can use a 5G network at the same time. Again, let’s take a real-life example. You know how your mobile connection sometimes slows down to a crawl when you’re at a crowded concert or sports event? That’s because tens of thousands of people are all trying to access the network at the same time, and there’s a limit to how much information radio waves can carry depending on the frequency band. 5G adds more capacity, so there’s more room for everyone’s devices and everybody gets faster data. 

5G networks have so much data processing power that they start to feel less like cellular networks and more like full-on distributed data centres. It’s like having direct access to the cloud. That means that intense, data-heavy tasks like HD streaming, gaming and augmented reality (AR) experiences can now be handled by the network instead of by your phone – and that’s good news for both your connection speeds and your actual mobile device (which now saves more battery power). 

5G is not just a faster version of 4G. It’s a whole new kind of mobile connection, with faster uploads and downloads, and much greater network capacity. It’ll change the way we work and play, making data-heavy processes far easier to perform when you’re on the move. 

Now that you're clued up about 5G, why not check out Vodacom's 5G home internet solutions? Alternatively, explore your options for a device with 5G connectivity on the Vodacom shop.