Is your Wi-Fi 5G? How about your AT&T phone? Doesn't 5G require new cell towers, like, everywhere? No, no, and no. Confusing branding and marketing have been combining several similar terms, in some cases innocently and in some cases on purpose. Let's start by quickly answering some questions you might have:
Your home router has 5GHz Wi-Fi.
Your router isn't 5G cellular, the new system wireless carriers are installing now.
"5G E," which will appear in your 4G AT&T phone's status bar soon, also isn't 5G cellular.
People who say that 5G cellular is millimeter-wave are half wrong.
5G cellular will require new phones, appearing in 2019 and 2020.
Okay, now let's explain what 5G, 5G E, and 5GHz Wi-Fi have to do with each other.
5GHz Wi-Fi Is Not 5G Cellular
5GHz Wi-Fi is a short range, home networking system that operates in the five-gigahertz radio band. It's been around since 1999, but it became more popular when 802.11n home routers were released in 2009. Most Wi-Fi devices support it now.
Wi-Fi primarily uses two frequency bands, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Because the 2.4GHz band is the default for most devices, only has three available clear channels, and is shared by Bluetooth, remote controls, and microwave ovens, the 2.4GHz band can get very crowded and speeds can become very low.
5GHz Wi-Fi has more available channels and can typically run much faster, but it has somewhat shorter range than 2.4GHz. If you can use 5GHz Wi-Fi at home, you probably should. Want to know more? Check out our explainer on What Is Wi-Fi 6?
Now here's where things get confusing. Many people refer to 5GHz Wi-Fi as "5G Wi-Fi." Wi-Fi is not 5G, however.
5G Cellular Is Not 5GHz or "5G E"
The 5G that all of the wireless carriers are installing is the fifth generation of cell phone networks. If you're talking about Wi-Fi, "5G(Hz)" refers to a frequency band: five gigahertz. If you're talking about cellular, the "G" stands for "generation." They're completely different terms.
There's a set of specs that define 5G, and the industry has settled on 5G NR ("new radio") as the standard technology to fulfill those specs. 5G NR is a new way of encoding data through the air which is more efficient than previous generations. It can use wider channels, communicate more responsively with remote servers (lower latency), pack more data into one radio cycle, and address more devices per square mile than 4G can. It does this by using more advanced computing power in your device and in base stations than was available in 2009, when the 4G standard was set. You will almost certainly need a new phone to be able to access 5G, even on existing radio bands.
Driven by wireless carrier marketing, many people have become confused and think that 5G is synonymous with millimeter-wave, a very short-range, high-speed frequency band. mmWave 5G promises multi-gigabit speeds, but has trouble penetrating walls and traveling long distances. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon will all use at least some mmWave, in some cities. For what it's worth, because it's a shorter range technology, mmWave base stations are actually lower-power than traditional macro-cell sites.
But mmWave isn't necessary for 5G. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile all plan to install 5G on existing 4G frequencies such as 600MHz, 1900MHz, and 2.5GHz. On those frequencies, 5G uses the same towers as 4G, and has the same distance and wall-penetration characteristics as existing 4G networks, but with lower latency and at least 35 percent greater speed. T-Mobile is counting on 600MHz to cover rural areas.
When you read pieces claiming that millimeter wave and 5G are the same thing, they're wrong. And if anyone says you can use 5G without upgrading your phone...well, read on.
