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BEIJING, March 3-- Gone are the days when Chinese people wait in long lines at train stations for tickets home during festivals like the Chinese New Year -- now they buy tickets on smartphone applications at their fingertips. Also, bicycles have become popular again in China thanks to the new shared bike initiative. Parked at designated areas on sidewalks, the bikes can be easily unlocked by scanning a QR code. Such innovations are made possible thanks to the 4th Generation (4G) mobile networks, which have greatly increased the Internet speed and given birth to what has been known as the Internet-based "sharing economy." Yet, 4G may soon be a thing of the past, as tech companies around the world compete to launch technological as well as market trials for devices compatible to the 5th Generation (5G) networks, whose mass adoption is expected to be in 2020 at the latest. Given the significantly greater speed -- up to 10 gigabits per second -- that 5G offers, the next-generation ultra-fast networks will see our way of life change even more than in the 4G era, virtually in everything from how we "interact" with our cars to our homes. CHINA JOINS TOP PLAYERS The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Geneva-based affiliate of the United Nations that governs issues concerning information and communication technologies, has set 2020 as the target year for completing the international standardization of 5G technologies so as to pave the way for its mass adoption, according to a roadmap the ITU refers to as "IMT-2020." | 
