Speedway has one of the first residential tests of 5G in America. Here's what that means

Speedway is one of just 11 cities in the U.S. where Verizon is testing 5G, the latest zippy wireless internet technology that will change your life and make your Netflix streaming even prettier.

Here's how it works: Imagine you have internet in your home but without the need for cable. All you need is a modem that looks about like the modem you have right now and a bread-box-sized contraption that can be attached right to a utility pole.  That's all you need to provide internet to your entire house at speeds up to 10 times faster than 4G.

If you move, you don't need to transfer service or have a new install done. Just plug in your modem at your new pad and you're ready to go, assuming your new neighborhood also has the technology.

And that last part is the rub. 5G isn't wired, like your cable or DSL internet at home. It's transmitted through the air wirelessly. And things can get tricky when it has to pass through things like trees or walls.

So Verizon's people are testing the service in all sorts of areas: flat, single-family dwelling neighborhoods like Speedway, apartments in urban areas, even places like Denver that have actual topography that could slow things down. They aren't sure yet how the system will all work or how much it could all cost, but your house could have super fast internet sometime in 2018. The service could roll out to your Verizon cellphone in 2019.

In Speedway, one of these 5G boxes can spread internet goodness for a few hundred meters. In areas with more trees or other obstacles, that could be a smaller area, or it could be up to a kilometer under optimal conditions. 

AT&T announced in February that it also would be testing 5G in Indianapolis. 

Now, you might say, what will I do with internet that is that fast? Verizon, Ericsson and a whole host of other partners are happily coming up with new bandwidth-gobbling ideas to use all that sweet, sweet speed. 

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Verizon and friends recently took over a cute Speedway bungalow and tricked it out as the "house of the future," using the shiny 5G technology. A Verizon employee played "Uncharted 4" at speeds that could give him an edge over all the losers still playing video games at normal speeds. A 4K TV played a crystal-clear   video stream that needs about 50 megabytes per second of download speed, versus the roughly 2 mbps your turtlelike Netflix gets now. 

And there was even a fancy virtual reality set that offered an immersive, dizzying view of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That, too, needs fast download speeds to free you from your computer. It might also require some anti-nausea medication. 

No, you can't use it yet; don't bother cruising through Speedway looking for a signal. But as tests roll out, you might be contacted to be part of a two- to three-month month beta if you're in the right area.

The house of the future looks about the same as the house of today. It's just a lot faster and a little clearer. But there could be other uses for 5G. It can stream video so quickly, former Indy 500 driver Wade Cunningham drove a car around IMS using only a live video stream of the road ahead of him. He did not crash, which is good. 5G could be useful for remotely monitoring mines, letting farmers drive tractors from the comfort of their couches, and more. 

Allison Carter is Facebook editor at IndyStar and imagines she can scroll her newsfeed even faster with this. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonLCarter.