Phone batteries could last 50% longer if more 5G towers are built

Increasing the density of 5G masts could slash a mobile network’s overall energy use by two-thirds and greatly extend the battery life of all phones, researchers have found.

Mobile phone signals are broadcast from towers in all directions, so much of the energy is wasted due to absorption, reflection and scattering. Agrim Gupta and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, say that cutting the distance of wireless transmissions is key as it would mean each cell…