id="article-body" section="articleBody"> Raindrops splat the pavement in downtown Chicago as I balance an umbrella in the crook of my arm and phones in each hand. On my left, I'm downloading the PUBG Mobile game over Verizon's 5G network. On my right, I'm timing how long it takes to install: 2.5 minutes (versus 6 minutes on 4G). What's so exhilarating about this moment has less to do with the progress bar on my screen and more to do with bearing witness to one of the first live 5G networks anywhere in the world.

After years of hearing how 5G is poised to change our lives with lightning-fast phone download speeds, and crisp, super high-resolution video calls, AR apps, and real-time gaming that are all lag-free, 5G is finally real. But it's far from stable -- and stability is the one thing 5G desperately needs.

On its surface, 5G is about astounding speeds and almost zero latency -- the lag time between when your phone pings the network and when it responds. But on a global scale