5G

spARTacus

spARTacus

Active member
How's everyone's 5G coming along? In AC, I recently saw a thread showed lots and lots of impressive sppeds. Do we really need all that speed? Can things just work well enough at lower speeds, with perhaps more efficient use of limited available speed/capacity? Has the "richness" of various websites and online services nowadays (and therefore also some of the benefits of increased speed/capacity) made things better for us? Myself personally, I've been surviving on shoestring connections for quite a while. Somehow, manging half decently with limited available 5Mbps rural Canada home internet (including the ability to successfully stream things like TV/audio), and also half decently surviving with "3/2G mobile speeds/price on LTE/4G cellular", branded as discount capacity/carrier from one of the big three Canadian Cellular companies (even successfully took it one a handful of occasions roaming into the US). Due to all that, I've always been sceptical of if we really "need" so much speed and download capacity out of our home internet and mobile plans, and whether or not some of the hype/wants are just also about pushing for getting more money out of of us. Interestingly however, in some of rural Canada Rogers and Bell both now seem to offer "rural home internet" via LTE/5G, with speeds easily up to 150Mbps (and probably soon to be way faster), and that certainly seems to be attractive for improving my situation, and probably wouldn't be possible if there wasn't also an ongoing shift to 5G.

What are people's thoughts or desires thus far about pros, cons, experiences, expectations... about 5G for their smartphones/tablets/other?
 
conite

conite

New member
5G is not about speed (for 99% of us), but is for allowing more connections for a system that almost hit full capacity.
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Active member
Yeah the ability to basically now provide almost hi-speed wireless internet to rural areas (that don't have fiber or cable) seems like a plus.
 
Chuck Finley69

Chuck Finley69

Active member
spARTacus said:
Yeah the ability to basically now provide almost hi-speed wireless internet to rural areas (that don't have fiber or cable) seems like a plus.
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Now, 5G does help provide better coverage as part of 4G/5G networks compared with 3G it replaced as part of 3G/4G networks. The networks still have to be optimized but a good improvement when the 5G is truly available.
 
SteinwayTransitCorp

SteinwayTransitCorp

Active member
Yes 5H has freed up more bandwidth but it is already have issues, this is because while 2/3 G shutdown opened up more frequencies. All that traffic migrated to 4G causing the same issues again.
 
Chuck Finley69

Chuck Finley69

Active member
Yes 5H has freed up more bandwidth but it is already have issues, this is because while 2/3 G shutdown opened up more frequencies. All that traffic migrated to 4G causing the same issues again.

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That's part of what I mean by optimization of the networks. Both the carriers optimization and users actually moving up to 5G capable phones to distribute the network demand better. I suspect AT&T was on to something blocking older 4G devices and factory unlocked devices
 
SteinwayTransitCorp

SteinwayTransitCorp

Active member
Chuck Finley69 said:
Yes 5H has freed up more bandwidth but it is already have issues, this is because while 2/3 G shutdown opened up more frequencies. All that traffic migrated to 4G causing the same issues again.

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That's part of what I mean by optimization of the networks. Both the carriers optimization and users actually moving up to 5G capable phones to distribute the network demand better. I suspect AT&T was on to something blocking older 4G devices and factory unlocked devices
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AT&T's only motive was contracts. There service was in the dumps long before the transfer over.
 
Chuck Finley69

Chuck Finley69

Active member
spARTacus said:
Seems that non 5G phones still work fine in NYC for voice, data, text/sms.
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Not as good as those with 4G/5G coverage. When 3G coverage is dropped, it's not magically transferred over to 4G as most 3G coverage becomes 5G coverage.

In the year since AT&T shut 3G down, my 4G coverage was initially OK but has degraded when compared with 5G coverage. The 4G coverage is left standing in the shadow of mostly 5G improvements.

On my property, I had strong 3G coverage and 4G LTE was tolerable. Once 3G shutdown, I lost more calls on VoLTE than before. Even 5G devices initially were dropping calls. During 2 hurricanes this year, it was far worse than usual.

Especially in the last 6 months after storms with system upgrades, the 5G service has improved to 3G service level for my phone calls. The 4G devices still drop occasional calls or I show missed calls where phone never rang.
 
Chuck Finley69

Chuck Finley69

Active member
I should have been more specific in my other post, and said "4G/LTE non-5G phones still seem to work good/fine for voice, sms, data... in NYC".

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Has nothing to do with just NYC or other any single locale. Simply put, network optimization is happening, primarily on 5G, and resources are being put into growing the 5G infrastructure. At this point, 4G is simply maintained but 4G only device coverage is being degraded just by staying in place while 5G marches forward.

Carriers don't care if 4G coverage is spotty when there's strong 5G coverage in that area. Carriers simply expect you to upgrade to a properly compatible optimized device.
 
Chuck Finley69

Chuck Finley69

Active member
spARTacus said:
My post had everything to do with NYC. It was an observation that the transition to 5G has not yet taken down 4G/LTE phones in the NYC area.
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But everywhere, 4G/LTE isn't taken down period, just that network has capacity issues for VoLTE calls and LTE data. A 4G only phone simply doesn't operate as well as it did when it had 3G/4G service or as 4G/5G device now. Essentially, 4G only devices are simply gimped compared with newer devices.
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Active member
Chuck Finley69 said:
But everywhere, 4G/LTE isn't taken down period, just that network has capacity issues for VoLTE calls and LTE data. A 4G only phone simply doesn't operate as well as it did when it had 3G/4G service or as 4G/5G device now. Essentially, 4G only devices are simply gimped compared with newer devices.
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4G/LTE worked great for me recently in NYC for voice, data, SMS. Zero issues. Worked just as well as way before some the transition efforts.
 
SteinwayTransitCorp

SteinwayTransitCorp

Active member
Chuck Finley69 said:
But everywhere, 4G/LTE isn't taken down period, just that network has capacity issues for VoLTE calls and LTE data. A 4G only phone simply doesn't operate as well as it did when it had 3G/4G service or as 4G/5G device now. Essentially, 4G only devices are simply gimped compared with newer devices.
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Correct, a 4G lte phone will search once in awhile, or drop a call. Without the fall back oh 3G or even 2 it starts to become limited
 
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