Frequently Asked Questions

Each "G" is a generation of mobile network standards, ratified through 3GPP (or its predecessors) and classified by the ITU-R under the IMT family of standards. A new generation isn't just "faster" — it usually means a new radio interface and a redesigned network core, released roughly once a decade: 2G (GSM, 1991), 3G (UMTS, 2001), 4G (LTE, 2009), 5G (NR, 2019), and 6G (IMT-2030, expected 2030).

5G coverage is still being built out, and much of what's deployed is "non-standalone" 5G that leans on the existing 4G core for control signalling. Your phone also falls back to 4G automatically whenever 5G signal is weak or unavailable — which, outside dense urban areas, is most of the time. 4G remains the workhorse most phones quietly rely on.

Both, depending on where you are. Peak 5G speeds (up to 20 Gbps on mmWave) are lab and stadium-demo numbers. Realistic everyday 5G throughput is closer to 200 Mbps — still roughly 6-7x faster than realistic 4G, and with a fraction of the latency. See the Performance Dashboard for the full peak-vs-realistic comparison. Performance Dashboard.

6G doesn't exist as a shipping standard yet. The ITU-R's IMT-2030 requirements are expected to be finalised around 2027, with first commercial deployments pencilled in for 2030. Everything about 6G on this site is a research target, not a product — and history (see: some of 5G's own promises) suggests the eventual reality will land a bit short of the pitch.

That's your phone falling back to whatever generation has usable signal where you are — usually indoors, underground, or in rural areas with limited tower density. Many carriers have also begun shutting down 3G networks entirely and reallocating that spectrum to 4G/5G, which can make the fallback jump straight to 2G-era EDGE ("E") in some areas.

Sub-6GHz 5G uses lower frequencies that travel further and penetrate buildings reasonably well — it's the "everywhere" 5G most people actually use, with modest speed gains over 4G. mmWave uses 24-100 GHz spectrum with huge bandwidth for multi-gigabit speeds, but its range is measured in hundreds of metres and it struggles to pass through walls, so it's mostly deployed in stadiums, airports, and dense city blocks.

Many already have, or are actively being phased out — carriers want that spectrum back for 4G and 5G. 2G tends to survive longest because so much low-bandwidth infrastructure (alarm systems, payment terminals, some IoT devices) still depends on it; 3G is generally the first full generation to be retired.

Network slicing lets a single physical 5G network be partitioned into multiple virtual networks, each tuned with different priorities — one slice optimised for consumer video streaming, another for ultra-low-latency industrial control, another for massive low-power IoT sensors — all running on the same underlying infrastructure. It's one of the core reasons 5G's core network had to be redesigned rather than just sped up.

Bandwidth determines how much data you can move; latency determines how quickly a round trip happens. Streaming video mostly needs bandwidth — a few seconds of buffer hides latency entirely. Cloud gaming, video calls, and remote-controlled machinery need low latency specifically, because no amount of extra bandwidth fixes the lag between an action and its response. Try the What-If Simulator to see how the two trade off across use cases. What-If Simulator.

Peak speed is the theoretical maximum a generation's standard allows under ideal lab conditions — the number in the marketing brochure. Realistic speed is what you'd typically get on a real device, on a real network, sharing a cell tower with other users. All the G's shows both, because the gap between them tends to be enormous — often one to two orders of magnitude.

Metrics and architecture details are grounded in published 3GPP release specifications, ITU-R IMT classifications, and GSMA reference material — linked in the footer of every page. Figures are curated and simplified for clarity, not pulled from any single carrier's marketing.

No. All the G's is an independent side project. 3GPP, GSMA, and the ITU are cited as data sources, not partners or sponsors of this site.