How Fast Will 5G Really Be?

vector of new 5th generation of internet concept, speed of 5G network internet wireless.

While there will eventually be much more to 5G than just faster download speeds for our smartphones, the truth is, that’s what most people are interested in right now. 

That’s good, since it’s really all that the first deployments of 5G have to offer. The early efforts are laser focused around what the telecom industry confusingly calls eMBB, short for Enhanced Mobile Broadband.

So, the obvious question is, how much better and how much faster will 5G data connections actually be than the 4G LTE Advanced Pro connections that most people have now? Not surprisingly, as with most things 5G, the answer is a complicated “it depends.”


It turns out there are quite a few factors that influence the speed of a wireless connection, including the amount of bandwidth allocated for each connection channel between the smartphone’s modem and the telco carrier’s cellular network infrastructure.

Another factor is the type of 5G signals being used millimeter wave (mmWave) or sub-6 GHz (see The 5G Landscape, Part 2: Spectrum and Devices for a thorough definition of these two, as well as an explanation of the differences between them).

Additionally, one must consider things like the number of channels that can be combined, how the signals are transmitted, the types of compression technology used, and much more.