Buffering is about to be consigned to history: Since the turn of the year, the tech press has been awash with hype about 5G — due to launch globally in 2020. It is expected to eventually allow insanely quick speeds of up to 20 GB a second, super low latency of 1 millisecond and capacity that is 100 times greater than our current 4G phones. More than this, it is intended to enable the Internet of Things to realize its full potential: cue a techno-utopian/dystopian (delete as appropriate) vision where everything from cars and traffic lights to home appliances and medical equipment will be connected to the internet. Egypt’s telecoms watchdog said last year that we too should expect to see 5G coverage as the new technology is rolled out internationally next year (although no details were given about licenses or how companies will operate it). Wired and Mashable have the lowdowns on the new tech.

With the US and China seemingly nostalgic for the good old days of the Cold War, 5G is becoming another new front in the evolving superpower competition. Huawei — the Chinese tech company every US state department official loves to hate — has been at the forefront of developing the new technology, and has big ambitions for the future. But a war of words has escalated over the past few months after Canada arrested the company’s CFO and the US launched criminal charges. NYT has the info, and for those interested, check out this insightful analysis by journalist Andrej Mrevlje.