5 amazing things you'll be able to do with 5G - CNET

Thanks to the minute lag times, you'll be able to keep up with your gamer friend on the other side of the planet.

"My son wants to do lightsaber duels," said Woojune Kim, head of Samsung's next-generation network business.

Self-driving cars

5G networks can respond fast enough to coordinate self-driving cars, either with cars talking to a central controller at a road intersection or communicating with each other.

"You can imagine no traffic lights in the street -- the cars are crossing, but they're not bumping into each other," said Volker Held, head of innovation marketing at network equipment maker Nokia.

Once all cars have sensors and cameras, they could also capture continuous video footage, said Marc Naddell, a vice president at chipmaker MediaTek. If there's an accident, you'll be able to view video from all angles, not just from the cars involved but from all cars in the area at that time.

Remote health care

Telemedicine becomes feasible with 5G, whose communication lag is brief enough to permit doctors to perform some procedures remotely, said Matt Grob, chief technology officer of mobile-chip maker Qualcomm. Carriers can set up 5G networks so those medical procedures get priority over someone watching YouTube videos.

The lag time is so miniscule that doctors could use robots to operate on you from 1,000 miles away. People in remote regions can be treated by the specialists, even if they're halfway across the world.

"You can get the best doctors in the world to work on your mother's cancer," Samsung's Kim said. "That was not feasible years ago."

Videoconferencing like you're really there

Kim believes the way we communicate will become more visual. Imagine talking to your family by way of a supersharp video, with resolution so high it's like you're next to them. Or rehearsing with your bandmates -- in different homes -- via video. That seems simple, but today's networks don't offer precise real-time communications. There's always a lag, and that causes it all to fall apart.

Hollywood-like Web speeds