If you look at the top of your phone, you'll usually see a little symbol that says 3G or 4G. The "G" stands for the "generation" (代) of your mobile network. But the symbols will become things of the past after 5G networks fully arrive.
On March 30, Shanghai vice-mayor Wu Qing made the first 5G video call on a Huawei Mate X Smartphone. Shanghai has also become the first city in China to start testing 5G networks.
About 100 times faster than 4G networks, 5G will let people download and upload data(数据) faster than ever before. But 5G won't just bring faster mobile internet. People can use it for many other things as well.
For example, 5G will help to make self-driving cars safer. Today's self-driving test cars have one problem-lag(延迟). When the car "sees" an obstacle(障碍物), it sends this information to a data center and receives instructions, However, it will be some time before it sends and receives this information. With this kind of lag, the cars might crash because they don't receive instructions in time. With 5G, this lag will be greatly lowered, making the cars safer.
5G could also be used to power the internet of things (IoT), that is, a large online network that connects all things and people. Fast internet speeds will be the key to developing this technology.
The IoT could be used in a lot of ways. For example, with IoT, your refrigerator could automatically (自动地) place an order online for eggs when it finds that there are no eggs left inside.
