“5G” is quite the buzz-term nowadays.

National telecoms such as Verizon (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T), and T-Mobile (NSDQ: TMUS) are heavily touting their 5G capabilities as a selling point. However, what they are offering today is really only scratching the surface of what 5G can do.

It was a hotly contested race to be the first to roll out a new 5G network. In fact, AT&T got in trouble for branding an upgrade to their 4G network as the “5G Evolution” when it was not 5G. Verizon was the first to deploy 5G networks in select cities while T-Mobile was the first to roll out a nationwide 5G network.

But the mobile carriers’ version of 5G is often barely faster than 4G. Sometimes, the 5G connection is actually slower than 4G!

So what gives? Is 5G all hype?

The short answer is no. Indeed, companies involved in 5G are once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunities.

Three Types of 5G

5G, the broad term for fifth-generation wireless technology, is not all the same. 5G can utilize three different bands in the electromagnetic spectrum: low frequency (low-band), mid frequency (mid-band), and high frequency (high-band).

Low-band is what carriers are mostly using right now. Low-band signals are stronger. They can travel longer distances without attenuation. The carriers don’t need to build many towers close to each other. The drawback is that the speed is lower: up to 250 megabits per second (but lower under real-world conditions). Thus, real-world speeds of 5G so far haven’t been amazing.

However, in high-band, 5G transmission using millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology to take advantage of the high-band could be about 40-times faster than low-band and carry massive amounts of data. But the drawback is that the millimeter-wave signals are relatively weak and could be disrupted by obstacles such as trees, buildings, and even people. You need to have many, many small cells to relay the signal. You may need to have a small cell installed on every city block.

And of course, mid-band represents the middle ground in the balance between speed and range.

Powerful But Limited Range So Far

In cities, small cells could piggyback on existing infrastructure including light poles and traffic lights, but rural areas, where population density is sparse, present a huge challenge. As a result, rural residents will likely be undeserved and lag behind in 5G adoption.

High-band 5G is available in some densely-populated urban areas. The transmission speed on an mmWave network is indeed superior to the other two carriers, but the service range is so small that you could lose the 5G coverage if you walked down the block, similar to a WiFi connection.

Consequently, the 5G available so far really isn’t truly showcasing what 5G can do.

Besides, what makes 5G exciting isn’t faster download of videos of movies. 5G is exciting because it promises to enable wide adoption of tremendous technological advancements.

More Than Just Faster Movie Downloads

Not only can 5G improve data transfer speeds, but when fully implemented, a 5G network can service many more devices at once than currently possible. It also greatly reduces latency, the time it takes for a signal to travel from the source to the destination. Even a difference of milliseconds could make a big difference in certain applications.

For example, even if self-driving artificial intelligence were good enough today for mass production of fully autonomous cars, the current wireless networks would not be able to safely support their use. In order for driverless cars to become commonplace, the car computers must be able to constantly communicate with other cars and their surroundings (e.g. traffic lights) in real time with almost no delay. Any delay could literally mean the difference between life and death. You need 5G.

The world is becoming increasingly connected. The Internet of Things is really only getting started. 5G promises to make the world a truly inter-connected one, where potentially billions of devices and systems can seamlessly communicate with one another.

4G made life a whole lot more convenient and made many companies that were able to seize the opportunity incredibly rich. 5G is an even bigger leap, and the opportunities are even greater.

We’ve found a technology company that’s an indispensable part of the 5G ecosystem. This investment play is little noticed by Wall Street. The time to buy shares is now, before the investment herd catches on. For details click here.