In ten years we might look back at how we used to have to wait for films to download, or web pages to load, and wonder how we ever coped.

A team of researchers has developed a 5G data connection that is 65,000 times faster than current 4G technology.

The astonishing speed reached one terabit (125 gigabytes) per second - the equivalent of downloading about 30 movies in a single second.

Scientists at the University of Surrey showcased their new 5G technology. They say it is capable of reaching speeds of one terabit per second. That is 65,000 times faster than current 4G technology. It means you could download 100 movies (stock image shown) in just three seconds

The technology was developed by scientists from the University of Surrey's 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC).

While comparable speeds have been seen in fibre optic cables before, this was the first test ever to achieve such a capacity wirelessly.

The team built their own transmitters and receivers, and then performed tests over a distance of 330 feet (100 metres).

EE TO USE DRONES AND BALLOONS TO BOOST 4G COVERAGE An army of airborne drones could soon be used to bring mobile phone signal and wireless internet access to the most remote parts of the UK. Britain’s biggest mobile phone group EE has begun working on the technology, which it hopes to deploy by the end of the decade. Using unmanned drones to broadcast phone signal to rural communities is cheaper than erecting traditional masts, it said. The devices, called Air Masts, are still at an early stage of development. But early plans indicate they will be able to fly 0.6 miles (1km) into the air in order to pick up signal from masts up to 12 miles (20km) away. They will then beam this signal into the area below it, allowing villages below to make mobile phone calls and access the internet. This avoids the need to expensive cables in the ground and base stations. Advertisement

The speeds far exceed anything achieved before for 5G, eclipsing the 7.5 gigabits (940 megabytes) per second speed achieved by Samsung in October 2014.

The team wants to begin testing their technology in public spaces by 2018, while a British release of 5G has been hinted at in 2020 by Ofcom.

‘We want to be the first in the world to show such high speeds,’ Professor Rahim Tafazolli, director of the 5GIC,’ told V3.

He added: ‘We have developed 10 more breakthrough technologies and one of them means we can exceed 1Tbps wirelessly.

‘This is the same capacity as fibre optics but we are doing it wirelessly.’

Some of the benefits of 5G include the possibility of playing holographic games in real-time with other smartphone users, or significantly improving time delays in financial trading.

Ofcom has said previously that it expects 5G to be capable of delivering 10 to 50 gigabits per second - but this later development would blow that estimate out of the water.