5G smartphones are coming in 2019. What does that mean? www.cnn.com

New York (CNN Business)5G is already here, but you can't do much to access those super-fast speeds unless you live in a specific place with a particular piece of technology. That's about to change.

Samsung and Verizon (VZ) jointly announced Monday the companies would sell a 5G smartphone in the first half of 2019. Although they didn't say which phone would support 5G, Samsung usually announces its latest Galaxy S smartphone in the spring.
The mystery phone may not be the first 5G smartphone to hit the market. Unsure of other companies' plans, Verizon and Samsung hedged by saying it would be "one of the first." But Samsung is by far the largest smartphone maker in the world, and its decision to launch a 5G smartphone means the rest of the market won't lag far behind. If smartphone companies want to stay competitive in the coming years, 5G will soon be a must-have.
That still doesn't solve the problem of network availability. Verizon's 5G network currently exists in only a small handful of cities. AT&T (T) also has 5G networks up and running in just seven cities. Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) lag behind. Verizon and AT&T lack specific rollout plans or time frames, but they plan to bring many more cities online in 2019 and 2020. (CNN is owned by AT&T.)
Although 5G may not be much of a selling point now, it will be once it's pervasive enough. 5G promises much faster speeds than 4G. How much faster is up for debate (Verizon says "many times faster"), but lab tests have yielded speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G. When millions of people are on the network, though, that tends to slow speeds down a bit. Industry estimates put 5G at around 10 times faster than 4G in real-life scenarios.
That's where 5G's ultra-low latency technology really comes in handy. Today's networks take a split second to send and receive communications between your smartphone and the network. A split second isn't much, but your phone could make dozens of request each time you tap on your screen. 5G gets that network communication time down to virtually zero.
5G is exciting technology for smartphone owners, but it's potentially much more important for broadband customers and businesses.
Verizon already sells 5G home internet service as a replacement for wired internet connections for homes — it even comes with free YouTube TV as a throw-in. 5G potentially allows companies like Verizon and AT&T to become broadband competitors in every city — something they were unable to do with FiOS and U-Verse.
5G's low latency can allow self-driving cars to process all the information they need to make life-or-death decisions in the blink of an eye. And the health care industry believes 5G could help power the next generation of telemedicine and robotic surgeries.
Before all of that can happen, however, wireless companies have tens of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure to upgrade.
That's a big commitment, but they've made good on their promises before. For example, Verizon also offered the world's first 4G smartphone, the HTC Thunderbolt, which debuted in March 2011. It similarly could only be used in certain areas as Verizon built out its 4G network, and the world collectively rolled its eyes. Yet other smartphone manufacturers quickly followed suit, and 4G modems became standard equipment on smartphones by the end of 2011.

Roles of science and technology highlighted to achieve sustainable development goals www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ The International Atomic Energy Agency /IAEA/ organized a Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology: Addressing Current and Emerging Development Challenges in Vienna, Austria on November 28-30.

First shipment leaves Rio Tinto’s Amrun bauxite mine in Australia www.riotinto.com

Rio Tinto's Amrun project in Queensland, Australia, has achieved a significant milestone, successfully making the first shipment of bauxite, six weeks ahead of schedule.

Ulaanbaatar joins EBRD Green Cities www.ebrd.com

Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is addressing pressing ecological and infrastructure challenges with a Green City Action Plan (GCAP) developed with support from the EBRD. The city with a population of 1.4 million will become the first municipality in Asia to join the Bank’s Green Cities programme.

Photographer spends 17 years documenting life in Mongolia through all seasons www.lonelyplanet.com

Award-winning photographer Frédéric Lagrange has documented life in Mongolia for the past 17 years through a series of stunning and intimate photographs. His vast archive of images has been turned into a large format photography book that captures the spirit of Mongolia, allowing viewers to explore the vast and rugged country and its people through his careful lens.

After almost two decades of photography, and working on editorial and commercial shoots for brands like Louis Vuitton, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and GQ, Lagrange is ready to show his life’s work and labour of love to the world. His book Mongolia, features 185 photographs captured during his 13-month long trips. The New York-based photographer tells Lonely Planet that he’s been enchanted with Mongolia ever since he was a young boy listening to his tales from his grandfather who spent time there as a prisoner of war as a soldier in World War II.

“He spoke of how he had been rescued in late 1944 by a detachment of Mongol soldiers who were fighting under Soviet command,” says Lagrange. “I remember the excitement in his voice as he explained how he and other British and American prisoners in the camp had been rescued by these massive men from a foreign land. Since then Mongolia has always been on my mind. Those men saved my grandfather’s life—and ultimately mine as well.”

A Mongolian eagle-hunter. Image by Frédéric Lagrange
Lagrange first travelled to Mongolia in 2001 for a month shooting landscapes in the west of the country but that first trip sparked a desire to return. “I felt a strong urge to see more: the Gobi desert in the South, the eagle hunters in the West, the Tsaatan reindeer herders in the Northern Taiga, and so much more,” he says. “That epiphany inspired the idea for this book, which has been a long-term labour of love – 17 years in the making.”

A family is evacuated during a snowstorm, near Tsengel village, Bayan-Ulgii. Image by Frédéric Lagrange
From the nomadic herders who follow the fresh grass of the endless plains to the urban population who shop in malls in the capital Ulaanbaatar, Lagrange travelled to every corner of Mongolia to capture captured the vastly different lifestyles and landscapes of this rapidly-changing country but deeply traditional place. Over time, in a country renowned for its hospitality, strangers became friends and he was invited into their homes and into their minds.

Lagrange captured the nomadic and urban lifestyles of the rapidly-changing country. Image by Frédéric Lagrange
“I have learned to know the country and people quite well over the years, the psychology of the people, the way to approach them, their philosophy, their approach to life, what to do, not to do,” he says. “I have learned a lot from being around those nomadic people from Central Asia. I feel I have a very good grasp of the country and overall I feel extremely comfortable in it and among the local people.” Lagrange was even given a Mongol name, “Гурван Зуу” or Gurvan Zuu.

“People are incredibly hospitable and it is a very safe country to travel, especially for women who travel on their own,” says Lagrange. “One aspect I love about Mongolia is that there are no fences in the country: You can travel from one end of the country to the other, and you will never be stopped or encounter any kind of fence to delimit or confine a piece of land. It is the land of vastness and freedom.”

Lagrange’s journey unfolds across the four seasons in the pages of his book Mongolia, which was funded after just five days through a Kickstarter project (more than doubling its original goal).

SMEs locked out of financing due to fund scandal www.zgm.mn

An alarming scandal involving Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Development Fund was brought to light earlier this quarter. The fund, which was supposed to finance SMEs, has allegedly granted high sum of loans to high-profile officials. This resulted in arrests of four people including the Director of SME Development Fund Tugsbileg Sukhbaatar and his Deputy last month. Becoming victims to the bribery and embezzlement scandal, SMEs have lost access to fund financing as a source close to the matter informed that the fund currently has no officials that can authorize loans, completely freezing fund transactions.

Sacked! Two Mongolian Ministers lose jobs www.news.mn

Mongolia’s Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh removed two ministers from his cabinet just after he himself narrowly survived a parliamentary attempt to sack him. On Friday, 54.8 percent of MP’s refused to dissolve cabinet in the vote which came after 27 members signed a petition for dissolving cabinet.

Establishment of U.S. Cultural Center in Darkhan discussed www.montsame.mn

Darkhan-Uul /MONTSAME/ A.Tuvshinbat, Deputy Governor of Darkhan-Uul aimag and Robert Tate, Head of Public Relations Department at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia held meeting on November 29.

Mongolia’s success in fighting HIV/AIDS www.news.mn

Mongolia is a low HIV case country with an estimated adult prevalence of less than 0.1 percent. Ahead of World AIDS Day (1 December), the country’s health organizations held a press conference today.

Mongolia’s imports from Taiwan increasing www.news.mn

The total value of Mongolia’s imports from Taiwan reached USD 8.1 million in the first nine months of 2018, which is 1.7 times more than the same period in 2017. This is the best recorded performance since Taiwan’s Trade Mission started operation in Ulaanbaatar in 2002. Previously, Mongolia’s import volume from Taiwan reached USD 7.8 million in 2014.