When is 5g coming

Premium models, like Samsung's Galaxy S20 lineup , have seen steep discounts. And Apple even kept the price of its iPhone 12 Pro lineup steady with last year's phones, even though the new models all have 5G connectivity. While 5G is expected to be a game-changer , for many consumers right now, it's just an extra cost. The introduction of cheaper devices can help change that. Not only will handset makers introduce less expensive new devices, 's crop of 5G phones likely will stick around at lower prices.

The number of 5G smartphones is expected to more than double to million in , according to Strategy Analytics. And in , nearly half of all phones will have 5G.

The US had slower uptake this year, partially thanks to the pandemic, but is when shipments will nearly triple from this year's 36 million, he said. And the premium charged for mmWave variants of phones "keeps condensing," he said.

All of Apple's new iPhone 12 models in the US came with mmWave without charging a premium, even as companies like Samsung offered special, pricier versions for Verizon's network. MmWave-enabled phones tend to be more expensive because they require more antenna modules and technology spread around the device to make sure the signal isn't obstructed. While mmWave can be blazing fast, a tree between the tower and user or hand in the wrong place on a phone could block the airwaves.

When it comes to phone pricing, "it's almost going to become immaterial whether you have mmWave in the device or not," Higgins said.

Even inexpensive prepaid phones will broadly start to get 5G in But newer chips, like MediaTek's Dimensity , are "going to enable mass-market 5G phones. It's the new processors that will provide a lot of benefits for 5G users next year.

Qualcomm will bring 5G to its lower-end Snapdragon processor powering phones from Motorola , Oppo, Xiaomi and others in the first quarter. It likely will address an important market: prepaid smartphones in the US. This year saw the major US carriers build out their networks. But in , carriers and devices on their network will be able to tap into some tools found in new processors to get even better speeds. Qualcomm's X60 modem , which is found in its new Snapdragon processor for high-end smartphones, will arrive in devices starting in the first quarter of That chip slightly bumps up download speeds to 7.

You will, however, see faster average speeds, Qualcomm said. The X60 has the ability to tap into the slower, but wider reaching low-frequency bands and combine them with faster mmWave spectrum, boosting overall performance. One tool -- called dynamic spectrum sharing, or DSS -- lets carriers use the same spectrum band for both 4G and 5G. Instead of having different roads for buses and cars, DSS is like having one big highway with separate lanes for buses and cars. Verizon already employs this technology to power its nationwide 5G network, and the other carriers will use this to expand coverage next year.

Then there's carrier aggregation, which combines multiple wireless signals into one. This allows for even higher speeds than when running on one band by itself. It's like combining several one-lane roads to make a multilane highway with a faster speed limit. Carrier aggregation has been common for years but will increasingly incorporate different flavors of 5G next year. Carrier aggregation in particular will benefit T-Mobile, which has a big network of low-band spectrum and sizable midband airwaves, which offers a nice compromise between speed and range.

While initial 5G speeds on T-Mobile tapped into its slower low band and weren't much faster than 4G , that's already changing. And they'll get even faster in , thanks to the company's efforts to build out its midband network. Where carrier aggregation will really help T-Mobile is when it comes to getting 5G airwaves inside buildings, he said.

Mobile operators will charge their earliest customers a lot for 5G while they try to get a quick return on their spectrum investments, Hayduk argued, correctly, last year. It strikes me however that it is bold to assume that consumers will take up 5G the moment it's available and that 5G will underpin the modern digital business from day one. The economics of providing 5G connectivity will make it difficult for mobile operators to drive costs low enough to make moving to 5G tempting for users," he said.

Increasingly price-sensitive consumers won't stand for price rises and will stick with 4G. They will change their behaviours, picking and choosing which apps are stationary and which are mobile. They will use WiFi for data-hungry video and VR apps, created for a 5G world, which will remain stationary. Verizon has already begun rolling out its 5G services to consumers, with leading firms such as Korea Telecom and EE claiming to soon follow, but there's a clear difference between rhetoric and action.

If 5G is just whatever we rollout in say , then by definition we're three years from rollout -- but what that will be and how different it will be from what we have today? Korea Telecom claims it will deploy 5G this year, ready for the Winter Olympics , and Verizon also aims to start fibre-replacement deployment this year or next," he said.

Some suggest that a 'real' 5G — with a carefully developed and worthwhile new technology -- might not occur until It's all a bit of a mess. Many expect that the standardisation process will act as a filter, delivering what collectively is determined to be important and viable, and then we will label whatever arrives as 5G, perhaps around The International Telecommunication Union - a wing of the UN dedicated to the oversight of telecommunications technology across the world - answered one of the crucial questions around 5G: what it actually is.

Maximum latency is also set at 4ms. This means the minimum standards are set for the UK, although of course, providers could exceed them. The internet has grown exponentially since its birth and with the rise of connected technology and appliances, it's set to get even bigger. The Internet of Things IoT is an industry that'll be worth trillions by the s, and billions of everyday objects will be connected to the web.

To support this new revolution, a stronger, denser type of mobile connectivity is needed, and 5G will soon fill this void. Mark Skilton, a professor of practice at Warwick Business School, said 5G will be designed to support the future technological economy.

While the promised 1Gbps speeds were possible, we saw them more around the Mbps range. Vodafone launched its 5G service on July 3, in seven cities, rolling out to a further eight towns and cities on July By year's end, that had expanded to 31 cities and towns, including London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff. As of October , Vodafone offers 5G in 54 places.

It also offers 5G roaming in select locations, which the other major UK networks don't at the time of writing. Next up was Three, which launched a 5G service in London on August 19, though initially only for home broadband. The carrier's planned late mobile 5G rollout was pushed back to early to ensure all elements of the network were built out. It has now launched though, with 5G offered in parts of 68 locations as of October - so it made up for lost time. It also offers 5G as standard on all its plans, which not all networks do, and it sells a similar selection of 5G handsets.

The carrier planned to expand 5G to 14 additional cities by year's end, including Bristol, Eton, Leicester, Nottingham, and Windsor. As of October , it now offers 5G in 75 locations around the country. Sky Mobile has now launched at the start of after a couple of months of delay past the original November launch date offering service in a variety of cities. It uses O2's infrastructure, so should match that network's coverage. The three major telcos have all got well-established 5G networks in Australia at this stage, with Telstra and Optus leading the charge and Vodafone catching up after launching a little late.

In fact, Australia has some of the fastest 5G speeds in the world as of mid, well ahead of both the US and UK, with a median download speed nearing Mbps, about double the global average. Telstra and Optus are locked in a fierce battle, with both variably claiming to have the fastest 5G speeds in the country. While the two are certainly comparable for download and upload rates, Telstra has an edge on national coverage at this stage, and as a result, the amount of its customers that actually use the new technology is more than double that of Optus'.

The roll out continues, however, and coverage is steadily increasing for both major telcos. For a detailed and up-to-date map on coverage across Australia, check out Telstra's dedicated 5G page as well as the Optus 5G page. A number of 5G phone announcements were made in and early and we expect more to come throughout the year and beyond, however not all handsets are available on all carriers.

In Australia, eight 5G smartphones are currently available.