How Fast Is 5G? This Speed Demo Gives Us An Idea

It’s unlikely you’ll see these same amazing speeds when 5G eventually rolls out, though you’ll hopefully see a dramatic speed boost, regardless.

- Mark Hachman

So how fast is 5G, anyway? About as fast as a premium-tier cable modem, according to a live test performed by Qualcomm, Motorola, and Verizon.

All three companies showed off the technology at the Snapdragon Technology Summit in Maui, demoing a prototype 5G device on a prototype 5G network. (The entire first day of the summit was devoted to 5G [go.pcworld.com/5gmc].) According to the test, the modem transferred a gigabyte’s worth of data in 17 seconds. That’s 0.0588 GBps, or about 470 Mbps. That’s pretty damn fast.

Want to see it for yourself? Watch the demo at go.pcworld.com/jftt.