“5G” isn’t a well defined term. In theory, it includes both LTE and 5GNR (the OFDM based “new radio” air interface) on parallel tracks: https://www.edn.com/5G/4458325/What-is-5G-NR
It’s also hella confusing because there’s not a marketing or real protocol name attached beyond the “5G” moniker, at least not that I could easily find.
I can name GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, 1xRTT, EVDO, WiMAX, and LTE off the top of my head and tell you what “G” they are associated with (1, 2, 3, 3.5, 2, 3, 4, 4 respectively).
5G is a vaporous term with no real definition right now other than “whatever the fuck the ITU has decided to call 5G”.
EDIT: I guess they’re calling the air interface “5G NR (New Radio)”. How memorable. Guess with everyone finally getting on the same page with LTE in the current generation they felt no need to come up with a real name.
This is not really true – "5G" is pretty universally accepted to refer to 3GPP Release 15, defining 5G New Radio (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR).
“5G” is a marketing umbrella term. It refers both to the next generation of LTE (Long Term Evolution, the incremental improvements that have been added to 4G) and also New Radio, a new cellular protocol which uses new portions of the radio spectrum.
The features of 5G are higher bandwidth (especially in situations with high interference/poor reception), a higher density of users supported (up to 100k users/per square kilometer iirc), and better performance at high speeds (e.g. on bullet trains).
That's not the title of the article, and the premise behind the HN version of the title is at best confused. "5G" is not a specific technology. What you might be thinking of as "5G" is 3GPP's "5G NR" which is a new air interface. But 3GPP will continue to evolve LTE in parallel alongside 5G NR into the "5G" era: https://www.grandmetric.com/2018/10/29/3gpp-release-16-furth.... The reason for that is that the really big benefits of 5G NR come at higher frequency bands which will not always be appropriate for cellular service. At lower frequency bands, evolved versions of LTE will continue to be relevant for the foreseeable future.
For those who keep screwing this up in the sibling comments: 5G is LTE.
LTE is a protocol managed by the 3GPP Working Group. LTE is a forever protocol that continues to add new technologies and enhancements to existing ones while maintaining that single technology. LTE has gone through many versions whose names are absolutely useless, such as "LTE Advanced" or "LTE Advanced Pro", which do not align with any major addition to the LTE spec; new versions of the LTE spec may not explicitly contain the name, such as "5G NR", which is a source of confusion for some.
Also, 5G is not, automatically, mmWave, nor are 5G handsets required to implement it, and many don't.
It's worth pointing out that 5G is just a protocol which can, in principle, be operated on any of the frequency bands currently used for LTE. For instance, T-Mobile is currently providing 5G and LTE concurrently on their 600 MHz band.
5G New Radio (NR) is the global standard for a unified 5G wireless air interface. It was ratified some time ago. This allows investments to hardware.
The standardization efforts continue and they add functionality and more interfaces for specialized services and applications. For example: Multimedia Priority Service, Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) application layer services, 5G satellite access, Local Area Network support in 5G, terminal positioning and location and lots of other service interfaces. 5G will be much more than just 4G LTE with steroids.
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