Comment 5G is not a measurement (Score 1) 84
The "G" in 5G is not the force of gravity, it is not a speed.
5G is the fifth generation of the entire architecture. How towers work, how phones work. How they talk to each other. What infrastructure is in the tower (e.g. servers and CDNs now) and how it is secured. What frequencies are supported, and who can run equipment (such as private commercial networks).
5G towers are entirely software and are directional. They reclaimed all the old frequencies, and now switch down to LTE or Edge as needed for those individual phones (albeit using more capacity because they are less efficient).
So the cellular networks will stand up and shout about how much better 5G is for cellular customers (it's faster! you'll be able to stream a football game on your phone while at the stadium for another football game!) because the tower investment doesn't buy them as much if old phones are taking up a disproportionate amount of bandwidth.
That means you don't potentially get higher bandwidth or lower latency or better coverage, but it is worth noting that a major pitch behind 5G for the carriers is to have a lot more capacity to sell - to be able to have competitive residential internet delivered wirelessly, for example.
It is worth noting as well in the US that while Verizon was deploying millimeter wave towers in urban centers to give more capacity in the most dense areas, T-mobile bought a low frequency band because of the greater range covered by an individual tower. The different networks have different strategies on how to best take advantage of the new architecture.