There is soooo much talk of 5G cellular technology today we decided to put together a simple infographic and chart explaining the differences.
This information was gathered from many different sources and people will argue over the details presented here. For instance AT&T has what they claim is a new “5G Evolution” service which is really just 4G LTE Pro. AT&T relates it to 5G because, on the one hand, they are behind the other big players in deploying real 5G while on the other hand 5G Evo is about as fast as many real 5G ‘low band’ deployments.
| Generation | Technology / Branding | Year Popularized | Real Max Download in 2020 | Real Lag/Latency in 2020 | Distance from Towers | Frequency |
| 3G | HSPA | 2005 | 25-100Mb/second | 60 milliseconds | 75 Kilometers | .8 1.4 2.1 & 3.4Ghz |
| 4G | LTE | 2009 | 50-150Mb/second | 50 milliseconds | 75 Kilometers | .85 and 1.9Ghz |
| 4G | LTE Pro (AT&T calls this “5G Evolution”) | 2015 | 100-300Mb/second | 30 milliseconds | 50 kilometers | Many |
| 5G | Low Band | 2020 | 100-300Mb/second | 15 milliseconds | 25 Kilometers | .6 to .7Ghz |
| 5G | Medium Band | 2020 | 300-900Mb/second | 10 milliseconds | 5 kilometers | 2 to 6Ghz |
| 5G | High Band (aka “Millimeter Wave”) | 2019 | 1000-3000Mb/second | 5 milliseconds | Short – Need many more towers | 28 to 38Ghz |
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