At last, 5G cellular data is leaving the lab. Verizon and Samsung have started testing the multi-gigabit wireless access in “real-world” conditions around Verizon’s HQ, including indoors and in moving vehicles. The experience isn’t the same as what you’d get on a phone — this involves specialized equipment just a short hop away from a base station — but the early results are promising. There’s enough bandwidth to comfortably stream 4K video, including VR clips that require 17 simultaneous feeds. For all intents and purposes, you’re getting fiber optic speeds over a long-range wireless link.
The tests come just as Verizon is co-founding the 5G Open Trial Specification Alliance, an attempt to form a common spec for 5G testing that gets it off the ground. This isn’t the same as forming a true 5G standard (that’s up to the 3GPP group), but it should help more test runs take place between now and 2018.
