GUILDFORD, England — On the outskirts of this sleepy commuter town just south of London, plans are underway to build the fastest cellphone network in the world.英格兰吉尔福德——在这座伦敦南缘的宁静通勤小镇的郊区，打造出世界上最慢的手机网络的计划正在展开中。The work is being done at the University of Surrey, where a leafy campus is dotted with rundown Brutalist-style buildings. Here, researchers and some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Samsung and Fujitsu, are collaborating to offer mobile Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than anything now available.这项工作在萨里大学(University of Surrey)进行。它那浓荫布满的校园里，点缀着一些粗野主义风格的老旧建筑。

在这里，研究人员和还包括三星(Samsung)、富士通(Fujitsu)在内的世界上仅次于的一些科技公司，正在合作研发一种新的手机网络，其速度不会比现有的所有手机网络慢上百倍。Their work on so-called fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless technology is set to be completed in early 2018 and would, for example, let students download entire movies to smartphones or tablets in less than five seconds, compared with as much as eight minutes with current fourth-generation, or 4G, technology. Companies also could connect millions of devices — including smartwatches and tiny sensors on home appliances — to the new cellphone network, and automakers could potentially test driverless cars around the suburban campus.他们展开的有关第五代无线技术——或称作5G——的研发工作，计划于2018年初已完成。它将能让学生们在五秒钟内将整部影片iTunes到智能手机或平板电脑上，而用目前的第四代——即4G——网络iTunes一部影片，则必须八分钟。企业可以将还包括智能手表、家用电器上的微型传感器在内的无数种设备与新一代手机网络连接，汽车厂商也许也可以在这座坐落于郊区的大学校园里测试无人驾驶车。

“A lot of the technology already works in a laboratory environment,” said Rahim Tafazolli, director of the university’s research center that oversees the 5G project, which includes almost 70 powerful radio antennas around the two-square-mile campus. “Now, we have to prove it works in real life.”“有很多技术早已可以在实验室环境下构建，”萨里大学5G项目研究中心的主任拉希姆·塔法佐利(Rahim Tafazolli)说道。这个项目在面积2平方英里的校园各处布置了将近70个功率强劲的无线电天线。“现在，我们必需证明它在现实生活中也一样有效地。

”The work by Dr. Tafazolli and his team puts them at the heart of a heated race. Fueled by people’s insatiable appetite for accessing videos, social media and other entertainment on their mobile devices, many of the world’s largest carriers, like ATT and NTT DoCoMo of Japan, are rushing to be the first to offer customers this next-generation ultrafast wireless technology.塔法佐利及其团队的工作，让他们处在了一场白热化竞赛的中心。人们对终端视频、社交媒体和其他娱乐内容的市场需求极大。不受其激励，全球很多名列靠前的运营商，还包括ATT和日本的NTT都科摩(NTT DoCoMo)，都意图沦为第一家向顾客获取下一代超快无线技术的公司。

The competition has led to research worth billions of dollars from telecommunications equipment makers like Ericsson of Sweden and Huawei of China, which are hoping to secure lucrative contracts to upgrade the mobile Internet infrastructure of operators like ATT from the United States and China Mobile in Asia. Those plans have become even faster paced as tech giants including Google consider their own ambitions for the latest, and fastest, high-speed Internet.这场竞争促成瑞典爱立信(Ericsson)和中国华为等电信设备生产商投放数十亿美元展开研发。它们期望获得ATT和中国移动等亚洲运营商的移动互联网基础设施升级订单，提供可观利润。随着还包括谷歌(Google)在内的科技巨头开始考虑到自己在近期、最慢的高速互联网领域的宏图，这些计划的进展速度显得更加慢了。

“Everyone is rushing to demonstrate they are a leading player for 5G,” said Bengt Nordstrom, co-founder of Northstream, a telecom consulting firm, in Stockholm.“人人都缓坚信证明自己是5G的领导者，”斯德哥尔摩电信行业咨询公司Northstream牵头创始人本特·努德斯特伦(Bengt Nordstrom)说道。The efforts around 5G will be on display at Mobile World Congress, a four-day tech and telecom event in Barcelona that begins on Monday. Most of the world’s largest operators and device makers like Samsung are expected to announce their latest wireless technology, including smartphones, wearable products and digital applications at the trade show.周一，科技和电信业盛事世界移动通信大会(Mobile World Congress)将在巴塞罗那揭幕。

环绕5G进行的行动将在为期四天的大会上亮相。全球仅次于的运营商及三星这样的设备生产商中，预计大部分都会在这场行业大会上宣告自己近期的无线技术，还包括智能手机、可穿着产品和数字应用于。Not to be outdone, telecom manufacturers also have announced glitzy demonstrations — including driverless cars, remote-controlled drones and autonomous robots balancing balls on tablets — to showcase their 5G credibility. The need to persuade carriers to buy the latest wireless technology has become ever more important as operators consider cutting investment plans in the face of a global economic downturn.为了不被扯在身后，电信制造商也发售了一些引人注目的产品展出，还包括无人驾驶车、遥控无人机和能在平板电脑上让几个球保持平衡的自律机器人，以展出自己的5G实力。在面对全球经济上行的运营商考虑到缩减投资计划之际，电信制造商必须劝说它们，让它们坚信近期的无线技术现在具备空前的重要性。

“If we miss the chance to make our networks relevant, it will be a disaster,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, Ericsson’s chief technology officer. “The billion-dollar question is what will a 5G network look like?”“如果错失让我们的网络参予进去的机会，就是一场灾难，”爱立信首席技术官艾华信(Ulf Ewaldsson)说道。“这里面一个最重要的问题是，5G网络不会是什么样子？”Despite companies’ efforts to outspend each other, that question remains unanswered.尽管各公司的投资力度一个更加败一个，但这个问题仍然没答案。A global standard for 5G wireless technology will not be finished before 2019, at the earliest. Companies worldwide must agree on how their networks talk to each other, so users’ mobile connections do not become patchy when traveling overseas. That involves lengthy negotiations over what type of radio waves the new technology should use, among other complicated global agreements, which can take years.5G无线技术的全球标准最少之前2019年才能已完成。

世界范围内的公司必需就彼此的网络之间如何交会交流达成协议完全一致，这样用户在国外时，他们的移动通讯才会显得时好时坏。这就牵涉到新技术应当用于何种无线电波，以及其他简单的全球协议展开漫长的谈判。

这个过程有可能要花上数年时间。As a result, carriers, telecom equipment makers and tech companies are lobbying global-standard bodies and national lawmakers to promote their own technologies over rivals’, according to industry executives and telecom analysts. Because of this jockeying, a widespread rollout of 5G networks is not expected until well into the next decade.因此，据行业高管和电信业分析人士称之为，运营商、电信设备生产商和科技公司正在游说制订全球标准的机构和各国议员，告诉他他们自己的技术比输掉的好。

因为不存在这种争夺战，5G网络的普遍铺开预计要等到下一个10年。Some analysts question why carriers are focusing on the next generation of wireless technology when many parts of the world, particularly in emerging markets, still suffer from achingly slow mobile Internet access. And industry experts say mobile Internet speeds in much of the developed world, especially in places like South Korea, where connections are often comparable to traditional broadband, already meet people’s needs.一些分析人士批评，为什么在世界上很多地方，特别是在新兴市场的移动互联网终端还极为较慢时，运营商却把焦点放到了下一代无线技术上。行业专家称之为，在很多发达国家，特别是在相连速度一般来说堪比传统宽带的韩国等地，移动互联网速度早已能符合人们的市场需求了。“A lot of this is about carriers and equipment makers looking for new ways to make money,” said Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester Research in Paris. “Consumers shouldn’t expect great things until after 2020.”“这在相当大程度上是因为运营商和设备生产商在找寻赚的新途径，”弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester Research)派驻巴黎的分析师汤玛斯·赫森(Thomas Husson)说道。

“2020年之前，消费者不应当期望有什么最出色的技术经常出现。”These challenges have not stopped companies from staking a claim in hopes of being at the forefront of 5G.这些挑战没有能制止各家公司争相押注，以期能让自己身处5G市场的前沿。That is particularly true ahead of major global sporting events like the Olympics and the World Cup, at which carriers and national governments want to promote their technological know-how. At the 2018 World Cup, which will be held in Russia, for instance, the local operators MegaFon and MTS are expected to test 5G-style services, including ultrafast mobile Internet, even without global standards in place.在奥林匹克运动会和世界杯等全球大型体育赛事来临之前特别是在如此，运营商和各国政府都想要在这些赛事上宣传自己的技术能力。比如，在将于俄罗斯举办的2018年世界杯上，当地运营商MegaFon和MTS计划发售还包括超快移动互联网在内的5G类服务，尽管涉及的全球标准还并未奠定。

The Korean mobile operator KT also plans to offer its own version of 5G technology at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and NTT DoCoMo has said it will have similar trials ready for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.韩国移动运营商KT也计划在韩国平昌举行的2018年冬季奥运会上获取自家版本的5G技术，而日本电信公司NTT DoCoMo则回应，它也不会作好打算，在2020年于东京举行的夏季奥运会上展开类似于的尝试。“The only way of learning is by doing,” said Mats Svardh, head of networks at the Scandinavian carrier TeliaSonera, which will test its own 5G technology in both Stockholm and Tallinn, Estonia, in 2018. “It’s about putting pressure on ourselves to move forward with specifics, not just theories.”“自学的唯一方式就是初学者做到，”北欧电信运营商TeliaSonera的网络业务负责人马茨·斯韦德(Mats Svardh)说道。该公司将于2018年在斯德哥尔摩和爱沙尼亚的塔林两地测试其5G技术。“这只不过是给我们自己施加压力，以便在一些明确的问题上获得进展，而不只是在理论上。

”United States carriers have also jumped on the 5G bandwagon, partly to offer people new services as current mobile speeds have become relatively interchangeable between major operators nationwide.美国运营商也重新加入了这场5G风潮，部分原因是想要给人们获取新的服务，因为美国几家主要运营商目前获取的移动网络的网速早已差异并不大，可以相互替代。Last year, Verizon Wireless announced that it would start testing new wireless technology in 2016 in order to offer new services, including potentially ultrafast mobile Internet, sometime next year. Last month, ATT countered with its own tests — expected to start in Austin, Tex., by the end of 2016 — that could offer mobile speeds roughly 100 times faster than its current offering.“We will be ready when it’s ready,” said John Donovan, ATT’s chief strategy officer, who added that traditional rivals like Verizon and new arrivals like Google could eventually compete to offer 5G services. “Everywhere you don’t solve a problem, someone else might step in.”去年，威瑞森无线(Verizon Wireless)宣告，它将在2016年开始测试新的无线技术，以便在明年某个时候获取有可能还包括超快移动互联网在内的新服务。上个月，作为反攻，ATT也明确提出，自己计划于2016年底在德克萨斯州奥斯丁开始展开测试，未来将会获取比现在的网速慢约100倍的移动网络。“等它好的时候，我们就不会一切准备就绪，”ATT首席战略官约翰·多诺万(John Donovan)说道。

他还回应，威瑞森这样的传统竞争对手和谷歌这样的新输掉，最后都有可能参予5G服务的竞争。“不管是在哪个领域，只要有个问题你不解决问题，别人有可能就不会进去做到。”For Dr. Tafazolli, of the University of Surrey, whose team started working on 5G in late 2011, these battles have led to an increasing number of companies offering support — including the use of high-speed computer servers, costly radio antennas and millions of dollars of financing to research and build the next-generation wireless network on his college campus, he said. Their primary goal: to test their latest technology in a real-world setting.萨里大学的塔法佐利自2011年末开始率领团队展开5G技术研发。他回应，这些竞争促成更加多的企业为他们获取反对，还包括高速服务器、价格昂贵的无线电天线，以及大把的资金，让他们可以在这所大学校园里研究和打造出下一代无线网络。

他们目前的首要目标是：在现实场景里测试他们的近期技术。“In the race to 5G, everyone wants to be first,” he said.“在5G技术这场比赛中，每个人都想要忽得头筹，”他说道。

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