his article appeared in Discover’s annual state of science issue as “With 5G, It's All About Speed.” Support our science journalism by becoming a subscriber.
The Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, near the sunny coast of Southern California, is partially solar powered. Distributed across 24,000 acres, the solar grid is self-contained and secure, but energy production can drop precipitously when storms roll in — with no way to ramp the panels’ electricity production up or down in sync with the weather. But earlier this year, the Marines enlisted a technology more commonly associated with a brand-new Samsung Galaxy than a military compound: The station contracted Verizon to build a private 5G cellular network.
The fifth-generation standard for cellular communications, 5G has generated buzz since it was codified in 2017, beguiling consumers with visions of seamless videoconferencing and video-game streaming. Each of the five generations of cellular has changed society in ...
