5G is underwhelming.

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,762
What? I never even saw 5G.
I mean, I see it, the little icon at the top of my phone indicates I'm posting this over 5G, but my speed tests indicate I'm still on 4G. Nothing ever changed. Just the icon. It is a lie.
Down here it is being deployed, and it does work. It works so damn fast that running a test sucks all of your available data plan considerably if you're not careful. BUT, the thing is that every single stage between the source and your phone must have an effective, fast connection. As usual, the law of the weakest link imposes itself.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,875
What would you rather have, 5G running constantly, taking up more battery life than needed just to connect to servers that are not 5G capable to get "Apple news updates", "allaboutcircuits.com notifications".

https://www.visermark.com/post/the-battery-life-impact-on-4g-and-5g-what-s-the-difference
I have 4G, I know I have 4G, and I rather not be told I have 5G with promises of 6G.

I'm happy with 4G. It's more than enough. I can stream a 4K movie with it. I don't know why anyone would need more bandwidth for a mobile device.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
I have 4G, I know I have 4G, and I rather not be told I have 5G with promises of 6G.

I'm happy with 4G. It's more than enough. I can stream a 4K movie with it.
I have 4G, I know I have 4G, I read the day I signed up for an "unlimited" Data package on Verizon that I would get limited 5G service and knew my phone would say,"5G" most of the day. I'm ok with all of it. I figure there is no need to get my undies in a bunch over a big nothing burger. I don't like to pretend I'm a victim. My cell service is lower priced today than it was two years ago and I get 5G in certain cases on top of it with unlimited data. Hard to have better services, lower price and pretend I'm a victim because there is a little "5G" icon on my display.

As for..
I can stream a 4K movie with it. I don't know why anyone would need more bandwidth for a mobile device.
Look it up, the mobile providers offered up a bunch of uses when they got the government to give up some sections of the spectrum and fund some of the development work and the rollout of the 5G.
 
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Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,875
I have 4G, I know I have 4G, I read the day I signed up for an "unlimited" Data package on Verizon that I would get limited 5G service and knew my phone would say,"5G" most of the day. I'm ok with all of it. I figure there is no need to get my undies in a bunch over a big nothing burger. I don't like to pretend I'm a victim. My cell service is lower priced today than it was two years ago and I get 5G in certain cases on top of it with unlimited data. Hard to have better services, lower price and pretend I'm a victim because there is a little "5G" icon on my display.

As for..

Look it up, the mobile providers offered up a bunch of uses when they got the government to give up some sections of the spectrum and fund some of the development work and the rollout of the 5G.
"Pretend I'm a victim?"
The drama is strong with this one.
Why aren't you off debating politics on reddit?
I think you would thrive there.
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
6,282
Best I can tell is that the 5G reported on your phone indicates that you're connected to your provider via wifi, as opposed to the local cell tower.

The "public" 5G transponders (again, AFAICT) are nothing more than glorified wifi terminals that communicate directly with the cell towers.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
"Pretend I'm a victim?"
The drama is strong with this one.
Why aren't you off debating politics on reddit?
I think you would thrive there.
if you don't feel like a victim, why do you assume I'm talking about you? i thought the person I was referring to was pretty obvious, the one claiming...
Some marketing guys -- and the programmers who lit up "5G" on the display -- ought to go to jail. Along with the top brass.
Only victims expect people to go to jail for such a "crime?"

On the other hand, if you want to pretend I'm attacking you, I can't control that.
 

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,875
if you don't feel like a victim, why do you assume I'm talking about you? i thought the person I was referring to was pretty obvious, the one claiming...

Only victims expect people to go to jail for such a "crime?"

On the other hand, if you want to pretend I'm attacking you, I can't control that.
Ah, I see. Well, you did quote me when you said it, and I haven't read the comment you were obviously addressing since February of 2019, so I interpreted that all wrong.
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
10,235
But this time around, they told me (at least a smidge) of what they were doing to my phone, and promised 5G network. I accept. Not sure why. It's even slower than 4G. Painfully slow.
T-Mobile has two icons: \( \mathsf{5G} \) and \( \mathsf{5G^U_C} \). The former indicates a real 5G network, but using low band allocations. The sometimes call this one "5G long range" because the lower frequencies propagate further. But the speeds on that network are generally LTE range but with better top numbers. For example, in my area the best I could get from LTE was ~50mbps while the bare 5G logo means I can get ~75mbps in good locations.

The latter logo has the \( \mathsf{^U_C} \) for "ultra capacity" indicating a connection to T-Mobile's midband allocations. This network is much faster, and I've gotten ~500mbps on it. This is enough for anything I would want to do at this point.

Who knows, there might be some application that will make me feel differently but just now AR isn't moving me, and I don't need better video than I can get, so I wait and see...
 
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