Thoughts on 5G?

Heyo

This came up in another thread I was in about not wanting to buy a phone in 2022 without 5G support and it got me thinking, what are your thoughts on 5G? I’m on T-Mobile here in the states so I don’t get the “super fast” mmWave 5G that Verizon an I think AT&T have, but my best friend who’s on Verizon says he has never gotten those super fast speeds lol. To connect to those towers, you have to be in a very specific location within a very small radius from the tower lol so it’s kind of pointless for 99% of customers.

On T-Mobile, we have “5G”, but it hasn’t really seemed like that much of a difference to me, but I might just not be paying attention lol.

Anyway, what about you guys? Do you have to have 5G right now? Is it really good service where you live?

Menguelez

Heyo I don’t have 5G my actual phone not supported by tbe way my telephone company not offers 5G only 4G at this moment.

DarkPikaJP

I’ve only been able to test att 5g, it’s not any better than their 4g in my opinion. Granted I don’t live in a massive city either. I don’t really need 5g on my phone but that’s where we are heading.

Heyo

DarkPikaJP Yeah that’s kind my feeling on it. I’m glad it’s coming, but right now, it’s certainly not a “must-have” technology. Maybe in 3-5 years once it’s more prevalent we’ll finally start to see the really big benefits from it.

Matthias

Menguelez

Heyo

These two thoughts sum it up exactly. At the moment 4G is far enough for the daily usage, 5g needs about 5 years to been usable by means off network coverage and pricing from the provider.

And this is the point where it gets a little bit ridiculous, 6g is planed to start in 2030 and the research for 7G has already startet. I am very excited about the next generations, because the time between the generation gets shorter and shorter. So they will research a new generation faster than the provider could get the hardware implemented to let it been used by the consumer.

Matthias

I am not having 5g, neither a 5g smartphone nor a contract with 5g. The sad truth about living in Germany is that mobile data Flatrates are expensiv compared to the surrounding states and the network coverage isn’t quite as good as well. So in most cities they started to build 5g transmission towers, but at least in the smaller cities they have lately just begub to build them. Don’t ask about villages. At the moment 5g would be useless for me. Besides the coverage all I am doing with the phone is quite fine by my 4G Connection.

But I would love to use 5g if it would be available nationwide and would be more inexpensive.

Heyo

Matthias Wow that’s sad to hear that 5G is so much more expensive than 4G. But I’d have to agree with you as well that here in the states for me, I was perfectly happy with 4G coverage and never felt like I needed anything faster. Literally the only reason I really use 5G now is because T-Mobile gives me “free” 5G access cuz I have unlimited data and have been a customer forever lol.

Heyo

Matthias Yeah that’s a good point. I didn’t know they were already working on 7G lol! That’s crazy! Maybe once the technology starts to upgrade more quickly we’ll find more uses for them.

P4NDA0NE

Je n’ai pas de smartphone 5G ni de forfaits 5G, même si elle commence à être bien déployé. Mais pour l’instant, tant que le territoire n’est pas entièrement couvert ou du moins presque autant que la 4G, je ne vois pas l’intêret d’investir la dedans.

SprintingWorm

From the news I have heard, most 5G applications happen in industrial settings. They use the 5G signal to make more accurate and lower latency distant operations.

Heyo

SprintingWorm Yeah that makes sense. There are certainly lots of advantages to it that will trickle down to consumers over time, but as with most leading edge technology, it comes to businesses first until it’s cheap enough to sell to consumers.

DarkPikaJP

Another reason I try to stay off 5g…

Menguelez

DarkPikaJP 😱 not much speed, as I can see

P4NDA0NE

DarkPikaJP c’est tout ? 😱 Je m’attendais à mieux pour de la 5G 😅 C’est dans quel pays ?

DarkPikaJP

P4NDA0NE yea that’s more like 3g speeds there 😅 it’s in the US.

P4NDA0NE

DarkPikaJP ah d’accord 😅 je préfère garder la 4G alors 😂

Matthias

DarkPikaJP maybe the backbone is still capable only for the 4G Bandwidth and only the antennas has been added. This will lead to a lower Bandwidth if many people are connected. As far as I know this is the way most of the 5G networks here in Germany are made of.

DarkPikaJP

Matthias fair point though I think in this case it’s the carriers network. I think they are in like 3rd place for 5g speeds.

Matthias

DarkPikaJP yes, the backbone is the carrier’s network, it provides a specific Bandwidth and if there are many devices connected to the antenna the bandwidth will be split to all of them. This is for al major carrier with their own networks. In Germany the carrier’s also allows third party providers the use of their network and these have often been limited stricter to in means to the bandwidth.

DarkPikaJP

Matthias yea now you’re getting Into network prioritization. I will say tho last time I was able to compare carrier vs mvno, there wasn’t too much difference.