100 times faster
5G will also run faster, a lot faster.
Prof Tafazolli now believes it is possible to run a wireless data connection at an astounding 800Gbps - that's 100 times faster than current 5G testing.
When Samsung announced in 2013 it was testing 5G at 1Gbps, journalists excitedly reported that a high-definition movie could be downloaded in less than half a minute.
A speed of 800Gbps would equate to downloading 33 HD films - in a single second.
5G's capacity will also have to be vast.
"The network will need to cope with a vast increase in demand for communication," says Sara Mazur, head of Ericsson Research, one of the companies leading the development of 5G.
By 2020 it is thought that 50 billion to 100 billion devices will be connected to the internet. So, connections that run on different frequency bands will be established to cope with demand.
Raising the capacity of a network is a little like widening a road tunnel.
If you add more lanes more cars can go through. And ordering makes it more efficient: some lanes for long-distance, others lanes for local traffic.
The huge rise in connected devices will be due to a boom in inanimate objects using the 5G network - known as the internet of things.
5G trial network
So how much will it all cost? Ericsson and Huawei say they simply don't know yet.
Until the product development phase starts it is too early to tell.
Japan wants to play host, not just to the 2020 Olympics, but also to the world's first commercial 5G network
But that doesn't stop them from wanting to flaunt their research to the market.
In South Korea, which spearheaded work on 4G, Samsung hopes to launch a temporary trial 5G network in time for 2018's Winter Olympic Games.
Not to be outdone, Huawei is racing to implement a version for the 2018 World Cup in Moscow.
Despite such apparent rivalries and the huge sums each is investing in R&D, the bigger story is that they are co-operating to deliver 5G. And that in turn paves the way for potentially unmatched new technologies.