5G is inevitable, and hopefully will arrive sooner now that the EU is funding its development to the tune of €700 million.

This graphic they provide shows the new areas of data transmission they are expecting:

• Smart wearables (like the NowSpex)
• Smart cars
• Car-to-car communication
• Utility management
• Traffic priority
• Domotics
• Security / surveillance
• Entertainment (download one ultraHD movie in 10 seconds)

From a MapMerge standpoint, the countries that experience it first will be those that adopt 5G first.

MapMerge works with existing technology, but not optimally.

One of the few technological advances required to make it sing, is faster mobile Internet.

It is almost unheard of for such technology to not improve, to stagnate. So it is expected that with time cell data transmission will be faster. It’s just a case of who and when the breakthrough will revolve around. This could be it:

So-called ‘5G’ mobile communications will use a very high frequency part of the spectrum above 6 GHz. This could support a variety of new uses including holographic projections and 3D medical imaging, with the potential to support very high demand users in busy areas, such as city centres. 5G mobile is expected to deliver extremely fast data speeds – perhaps 10 to 50 Gbit/s – compared with today’s average 4G download speed of 15 Mbit/s.
http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2015/01/22.htm#.VTeaK0LTbhA

That’s a massive increase in download speed, and perhaps enough to make MapMerge be a joy rather than a frustration. So lets pencil in 2022 for MapMerge emergence.