From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: What is 5G? A GAO Science and Technology Explainer

Description: 5G wireless is the next generation of wireless technology.
It's a faster, more efficient, and more reliable network that will bring
currently unimaginable capabilities to our daily lives. For the United
States to take full advantage of 5G, our policymakers will need to make
critical decisions in the near future.

Related GAO Works: GAO-20-412SP:  Science & Tech Spotlight:  5G Wireless

Released: March 2020

[Tom Wheeler:] For quite some time, there have been two parallel paths
that have been progressing. One is the path to ubiquitous connectivity,
which has wireless devices that connect to everything. And the other is
the path to ubiquitous computing. And 5G is when they come together. 

[Jon Felbinger:] 5G is the next generation of wireless technology. It's
a faster, more efficient, and more reliable network. The network will be
critical for national defense, regional industrial production,
manufacturing, your transportation, your job, even your health. 5G tech
works differently than other wireless. In general, 5G uses more
bandwidth at higher frequencies to carry more data. The higher-frequency
signal can only effectively travel short distances, so 5G networks will
need a lot of small antennas everywhere. The additional data will move
over the network quickly and to do this, it will need new standards to
avoid data bottlenecks and other problems. 

[Tom Wheeler:] It is forecast that the average autonomous car will
produce as much data in one day as 3,000 people do today. That tsunami
of data has to be rapidly orchestrated, so you know all kinds of
information in real time without any latency, in order to guide the car. 

[Jon Felbinger:] Compared to previous generations of wireless
technology, 5G allows you to specialize coverage to particular use
cases. One of these is to a massive number of internet of things or
smart devices. Many smart devices are run off of battery power. For
example, e-bikes or electric scooters sense information from their
environment and communicate with servers through the 5G network. This
highly efficient, low-power communication that's enabled by the 5G
network will allow you to use more of that battery power toward the
primary function of the device, for example, getting you where you need
to go, and less of the power on communication. 

[Tim Persons:] Just as 4G gave us wide hailing, enabled precise
navigation, and put world commerce in the palms of our hands, 5G will
bring currently unimaginable capabilities to our daily lives. For the
United States to take full advantage of 5G, our policymakers will need
to make critical decisions in the near future. For example, negotiators
are now working on international standards which will affect US
competitiveness in the future 5G economy. Also, telecommunications
policy will determine which American communities see the most benefits,
and because the future network will involve more decentralized
computing, there are vast national security and cybersecurity
implications around the choice of companies that will build, operate,
and maintain the 5G supply chain. Because of all this, 5G is and will
remain a major focus for GAO as part of our steadfast commitment to
provide timely, reliable, and relevant information on science and
technology.