Mobile internet customers are being told fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless technology will become readily available in three years.
4G technology is now available to 90 percent of New Zealand smartphone users, and the rest are on 3G. 2G has been shut down.
Vodafone chief executive Russell Stanners said 5G would be in use by 2020 and would be significantly faster than 4G and be capable of handling the increase in devices expected to be connected in future.
"Anything that can be connected will be connected," he said.
"Driverless cars are the future, they talk about the internet of things - you know, there'll be ten times more devices connected - anything from fridges, any electronic devices, sensors in the field. Those are all possibilities in the future."
Mr Stanners said cellphone towers would still be needed, but the 5G network would would be more dependent on small devices attached to the walls of people's homes.