How 5G Will Change So Much More Than Your Phone

The current generation of wireless technology ushered in a host of new smartphone applications that helped put the mobile phone at the center of e-commerce, socializing and navigation.

The next wave of wireless—5G—will supercharge cellphones, but its real strength lies in its potential to power the “Internet of Things,” a byword for everything electronic other than the smartphone.

That includes factory production lines that get instructions over the air instead of through wires; driverless cars that receive incredibly detailed information about road conditions in real time; sports broadcasts that let viewers see the game from a dizzying number of angles, and get a host of new statistics superimposed on the screen to reflect the action; and wearable devices that monitor a patient’s physical condition and beam the information to doctors.