Other "5G is ... really nothing more than 4G " - not a cable replacement

[HDFan]

Very interesting article about how 5G is not going to be that great a deal. If 5G is why you are considering purchasing an iPhone 12 you might want to reconsider. Millimeter will be fast, but have very little availability. Midband has limited growth capacity as much of it is in use. Low band will likely dominate.

"If you take millimeter wave off the table, you've got very conventional competition from cellular, as it's always been. It's a little bit faster, true, but otherwise, it's really no different, and a next-generation coax connection or a fiber connection to a home is just a world of difference in terms of what you can get out of it."

Cable is working on Docsis 4 modems that will support 10 Gbs down, 6 Gbs up.

"Putting millimeter-wave back into the picture, you have a transmission medium capable of multi-gigabit-speed connections."

"What are millimeter wave’s problems? Number one is it doesn't go through anything. It will not penetrate a wall. It barely penetrates a window. It won't penetrate any foliage."

"In fact, millimeter wave is really good only for clear line-of-sight outdoor use."

5G vs. cable: Hitting the millimeter-wave wall | Light Reading

Broadband Success Partners' Jack Burton argues that 5G is not the competitive threat to cable that many once thought it would be.

www.lightreading.com

This reinforces real world tests which have been done by multiple organisations:

We Tested 5G Across America. It’s Crazy Fast—and a Hot Mess

Our columnist went on a multicity 5G testing tour and discovered warm summer temperatures prevent the fifth generation of cellular networking from working well on Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G phone.

www.wsj.com

And rural millimeter may not be that fast either, 100 Mbps in one test:

U.S. Cellular 5G Millimeter Wave Fixed Wireless "First" Shows Promise for Rural Broadband - Telecompetitor

Some people questioned 5G millimeter wave fixed wireless for rural broadband because of range limitations, but U.S. Cellular achieved speeds of

www.telecompetitor.com

 

[Joho2078]

Okay. Sure.

 

[freeagent]

5G isn't for phones you silly humans. Well it can be I suppose, but its supposed to be for autonomous vehicles.

 

[dannyyankou]

They’re missing the forest through the trees. 5G is in its infancy. 600mhz 5G will speed up over time, just like 4G has over the past 10 years. As for mmwave, the use cases are obvious. Crowded beaches, Times Square, a Yankees game with 50,000 people trying to get on at once, concerts, etc.

 

[bobmans]

I have an average of 70-100 mbps speed on 4G/LTE. I honestly don't care about 5G at all.
If you live in a country with excellent 4G coverage and speed then 5G is just not needed imo, and if you live in a country with crap 4G coverage and speed then maybe they should focus on getting that fixed first before jumping on the 5G bandwagon.

 

[JPack]

The U.S. is known to have the slowest 5G speeds in the world due to poor deployment. So it's not fair to have a blanket statement for 5G technology.

 

[savagewatts]

They’re missing the forest through the trees. 5G is in its infancy. 600mhz 5G will speed up over time, just like 4G has over the past 10 years. As for mmwave, the use cases are obvious. Crowded beaches, Times Square, a Yankees game with 50,000 people trying to get on at once, concerts, etc.

Best answer on here

 

[LonestarOne]

“Broadband Success Partners.” Now, there’s an unbiased source.

 

[C DM]

mmWave vs. Sub-6GHz 5G iPhones: What's the Difference?

All of the iPhones in Apple's iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups feature Qualcomm modems that support 5G, but potential buyers need to know that not...

www.macrumors.com

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Remember when Steve Jobs said that 3G was approaching Wi-Fi speeds back at the iPhone 3G launch?

 

[MandiMac]

Well, I can't talk for every country obviously, but in Austria, Europe (you know, exploding trees and stuff), we have two providers that are rolling out 5G now. I tried because I was curious with both providers and regardless of where I was (shopping center, home, out in the wild), I got at least 120 MBit down and around 40 MBit up. In some cases I had even more than 300 MBit down and a ping of about 12-14 ms - that's more than just rivaling my cable. As for surfing on a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, Chrome behaved like the websites were locally installed. No more pop-up effects because of ads, images loaded instantly, and so on. I get it that 5G will be slower once more people catch on, but this is progress. We even can order 5G internet cubes from Magenta (I guess it's still T-Mobile in the US, right?) where we can get "up to 500 MBit down, and up to 50 MBit up" for 60 euros per month. This is crazy stuff.

 

[ian87w]

5G isn't for phones you silly humans. Well it can be I suppose, but its supposed to be for autonomous vehicles.

Yet the hype and tech tubers are all claiming that 5G is a must for your next phone.
Even Qualcomm is force bundling its 5G modem to their flagship SoCs, driving prices up.

 

[ian87w]

Remember when Steve Jobs said that 3G was approaching Wi-Fi speeds back at the iPhone 3G launch?

HSPA theoretical speed can be up to 14Mbps up and 5Mbps down. Back then before fiber, it’s not too far off the typical DSL internet speed.

 

[dz5b609]

.

 

[remington79]

I live in a rural area so it will be awhile before it really catches on here and when it does it will be the low wave band.
I’d like to see the technology advance to where even that can replace or compete with cable. We only have the one cable company and the have terrible prices and worse customer service.
Then when you get too far out of town your only choices are dsl or satellite because the cable doesn’t go there. The state did approve legislation to allow electric cooperatives to run broadband in their right of ways but only a couple have so far.

 

[iZac]

I still get spotty 4G coverage in the middle of Shanghai (currently 1 bar sat in my office 2m from a window)

Neither of my parents houses' can even get any signal indoors in the UK.

This is all totally anecdotal, but will 5G be the magic bullet? Doubtful, that would force companies to actually pay for infrastructure!