It looks like 5G is here! At least that's what it looked like if you wandered around Mobile World Congress 2016 this week. Booths filled with information about the next-generation wireless¹ standard — some even offering "demonstrations²" of the technology — seemed to occupy more floor space even than new smartphones.

5G似乎走进了我们的生活。至少，如果你本周漫步在2016年世界移动大会的会场上是这样的。会场内的各大展示柜都是关于下一代无线通信标准的信息。其中一些甚至提供了该技术的展示体验服务。5G似乎占有比新智能手机更多的楼层空间。

But the reality is that the successor to 4G cellular³ service is still, according to best estimations, around five years from connecting devices around the world.

然而现实是，就算即使按照最乐观的估计，4G蜂窝服务的接班人仍然需要五年时间才能为全世界的通讯设备使用。

So why, then, was 5G the talk of Barcelona's big international tech conference now?

那么为何在巴塞罗那的大型国际化技术会议上会有关于5G的讨论呢？

The idea of 5G needed no inventing, per se: We've all known for a while that "5" would come after "4." But what the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance did shortly after last year's MWC was release something called the "5G White Paper" to lay out what 5G wireless will look like in terms of speed. (Assuming, of course, that consumer companies and hardware vendors⁴ can cooperate.)

5G的概念并不需要特地去创造，本来我们就知道"5"会是接着"4"之后下一个到来的。在去年世界移动通信大会不久之后，下一代移动网络联盟发布了"5G白皮书"来设定将来5G无线网络将会达到什么速度。（当然，前提是消费者公司和硬件供应商都给予配合。）

In that paper, the alliance announced the next mobile data standard should be capable of a healthy 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). Yep: With 4G speeds in the U.S. today averaging somewhere between 5 and 12 megabits per second (Mbps), 5G will look to improve upon its predecessor⁵ by up to 200 times.

在白皮书中，该联盟宣布下一代移动数据标准应该能够达每秒1千兆比特。是的，如今美国平均的4G速度在5兆到12兆，5G的速度比它的前辈要快上200倍。

You're probably psyched to imagine how fast apps, video, and other data will download or stream over 5G. But the idea of imminent⁶ gigabit mobile data is even more exciting for wireless infrastructure⁷ companies such as Qualcomm and Cisco. (After all, they'll be ones who'll have to upgrade that infrastructure to the new standard.) This year's Mobile World Congress gave these brands the first big international stage where they could trot⁸ out their moonshot ideas for the potential new tech. And trot they did.

你可能已经在激动地想象手机应用、视频以及其他数据在5G网络下运行或下载的速度该有多快了。但是关于即将来临的千兆级移动数据流量更让Qualcomm和Cisco这样的无线设备公司兴奋（毕竟它们才是需要为迎合新标准而将系统升级换代的公司）。今年的世界移动大会给这些品牌第一次走上国际舞台的机会，它们能够展示潜在新技术的疯狂想法。而它们也的确士气高昂地完成了这些展示。