It's all about 5G at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Mobile's next generation is now a reality, and it's way faster, more stable and more versatile than any of its predecessors. CGTN's Filio Kontrafouri visited the influential conference to see how our lives will be changed by tech's next big thing.

After years of being just a theme, 5G finally arrived at this year's telecommunications gathering in Barcelona. The biggest buzz has been generated by the arrival of the first 5G phones. 5G is a complicated technology that will offer faster connection on more devices. The industry says it will take time to roll out, yet it's something that can transform everyday life.

JEFF YEE PRODUCT MARKETING AND STRATEGY, ZTE "5G, the technology, has a tremendous opportunity more than anything else that you look at, the latency and the data speed. Those two, there's more to 5G, but those two things alone mean that a consumer won't really know the difference between what's physically on the phone versus what's in the cloud. Everything should just work seamlessly because it's incredibly fast."

Several countries including the U.S., China, Australia and some European nations will be among the first to have developed the necessary infrastructure to support 5G networks by the end of the year.

Saudi Arabia plans the largest 5G rollout in the Middle East. The technology is expected to contribute more than $19 billion to the country's GDP and create almost 20-thousand jobs by 2030.

ABDULLAH ALSWAHA SAUDI MINISTER OF I.T. & COMMUNICATIONS "It's not a question of why 5G but when. Because this is a trend that we foresee it's going to accelerate the next move to the digital age. We are moving into a world where the confluence of connectivity, big data and AI is going to transform societies and economies. It's a question of when 5G will pick up."

The Saudi minister says 5G has enormous potential to advance daily life in ways we can only imagine.

ABDULLAH ALSWAHA SAUDI MINISTER OF I.T. & COMMUNICATIONS "In healthcare, last year alone, we celebrated 1.4 million consultations that were delivered virtual, so practically from your smartphone, where 50 percent were delivered by man, by a physician and 50 percent potentially were experimenting they can be delivered by machine, by AI. Harnessing and connecting the world with 5G is going to accelerate that move to a data-driven economy, to improve education and healthcare."

Until then, countries will have to continue investing millions in their 5G rollouts until they have the infrastructure to support the technology and its potential. And though 5G is here in its earliest form, it will still be years before it fully revolutionizes the telecommunications industry and our lives. Filio Kontrafouri, CGTN, Barcelona.