It will almost certainly need a mixture of technologies, including much-expanded fiber optics and the swarms of coordinated antennas that come with small cell networks (which themselves have certain drawbacks). But how long will it take to realize that promise, and will 5G bring an end to problems with cell signal?Įxtremely high-frequency radio waves have a much shorter range than the frequencies that 4G cell towers relied upon, which makes building the infrastructure to deliver the high levels of network capacity 5G demands complicated. The promise of 5G is to cut latency and downtime to almost nothing while supporting radically expanded network traffic and many more devices. The next generation of technology, 5G, uses extremely high-frequency signals - called millimeter-wave or mmWave - to deliver massively enhanced upload and download speeds. What they all have in common is the degree of frustration they can produce when you’re suffering from missed or dropped calls or an inability to stream video or upload pictures. Construction materials, such as steel, masonry, and low-E glass.This EMF is carried as radio waves at the speed of light, from your cell phone to a cell tower, and the response comes back the same way.īut just like there are things that stop you from getting good radio reception in your car, there are things that interfere with getting good cell reception: As you talk into a cell phone, your voice gets translated into an electromagnetic field (EMF). You’ll be changing the channel repeatedly, looking for a station with a clear signal.Ī cell phone is the same, but it’s both a transmitter and receiver. Radios can also get worse if you’re in a canyon or the narrow streets of a major city. That’s because you’re away from the transmitter tower. Even if the station comes in, the reception may be poor. If you’re in the middle of nowhere on a car trip, there are very few channels that you can get on your radio.

An iPhone or Android works on radio waves very similar to the radio in your car.

First, we need to know how a cell phone works.

Boosting cellular signal