5G just might make web performance worse, not better, for the average person.
Why?
… historically, faster network speed has enabled developers to deliver more code to users—in particular, more JavaScript code.
Go on…
On the average devices still in use today, 200kb of JavaScript (compressed for transfer) can take 6 or more seconds to parse—and that’s after the time it takes to download the code over the network.
The average device is not the brand new thousand-dollar iPhone with 3 lenses for taking photographs. The average device even in the US is the sort of device that you see on the Amazon Best Sellers, which can run about $130.
So, the availability of faster networks will likely lead to developers sending more imperative code down the wire to devices that can’t handle it.
Nice work, devs.