5G Explained: Why are Adani and Ambani fighting over it

With India's richest Gautam Adani throwing in his hat into the fight for 5G, EJ Biz explains why the billionaires are bustling for a piece of this much-coveted spectrum.

Also read/watch| 5G auction begins today: Jio, Airtel, Adani in the fray

• What it is: 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks
• What makes it desirable: 5G has been designed to meet the very large growth in data and connectivity of today’s modern society, the internet of things with billions of connected devices, and fast growing innovations
• It's use case: Massive machine to machine communications – also called the Internet of Things (IoT), Ultra-reliable low latency communications which essentially means better control of devices such as automated cars, faster speeds will enable connection of billions of devices for our smart cities, smart schools and smart homes

Countries such as US have already commercially rolled-out 5G spectrum which India is still in testing phase for the same. Some research suggests that by 2025, 5G networks are likely to cover one-third of the world’s population.