Other What is it with this hype about 5G

[eulslix]

Seriously, I don’t get it. The majority of the population, living in poorer countries, will never ever experience it. Nobody is going to invest that money. Then count out basically everyone living in rural areas + all the uninhabited areas. That leaves metropolitan areas, and out of which I dont see any of the cities like Moscow, Tokyo or Berlin — spanning vast amounts of land — ever invest that amount of money to cover all of these areas if there is a WiFi router at almost every household ready to be used.
Here in Austria, our main glass fiber provider offers you a free service where you can open up your WiFi to the other customers and in return get to use their WiFi. The handover sucks because it takes some time (so no WiFi while in the tram), but at least you get WiFi coverage in large amounts of Vienna. Investing in the technology here seems so much cheaper to me.

And as for poorer areas, Starlink seems to be the most promising solution for low cost internet access, once they can bring the receiver cost even further down below the current 200$ mark.

And then there is the question why I would even need that amount of speed whenever I don’t have a WiFi access, since the only instances where it seems to be available are the ones where another WiFi spot is right around the corner...

To me, 5G seems to be a luxury technology for the privileged ones, living in the dense areas of metropoles like Manhattan. For these people, 5G will open up a world of instant 4K instagram transfers and 8K movie streaming right onto their phones. But for everyone else, this literally is an over glorified WiFi with a perfect handover...

 

[hirsthirst]

It's almost the exact opposite IMO. 5G isn't (just) about doing current things faster, it's a fundamental enabling technology to build new things on top of.

Vastly greater speed, reduced latency, higher reliability, lower power consumption (for devices) & bandwidth to serve so many more devices concurrently enables all kinds of emerging IoT technologies (eg: autonomous vehicles, or remote surgery via HD VR) which cannot happen without it.

I've read that the 'towers' are smaller & easier to place, but need to be more dense as their range is shorter.

It seems less likely than ever that there'll ever be a full fibre rollout to every home outside of dense city areas - when you can get a gigabit connection over 5G you'll replace your home ADSL router and cut the landline altogether, so it will revolutionise coverage in rural areas.

 

[eulslix]

It's almost the exact opposite IMO. 5G isn't (just) about doing current things faster, it's a fundamental enabling technology to build new things on top of.

Vastly greater speed, reduced latency, higher reliability, lower power consumption (for devices) & bandwidth to serve so many more devices concurrently enables all kinds of emerging IoT technologies (eg: autonomous vehicles, or remote surgery via HD VR) which cannot happen without it.

I've read that the 'towers' are smaller & easier to place, but need to be more dense as their range is shorter.

It seems less likely than ever that there'll ever be a full fibre rollout to every home outside of dense city areas - when you can get a gigabit connection over 5G you'll replace your home ADSL router and cut the landline altogether, so it will revolutionise coverage in rural areas.

I understand. But how does this change with 5G. 4G and LTE for that matter have been around for quite some time. There was nothing holding the providers back of laying down the necessary infrastructure and providing people with LTE. Most of them would most probably already be happy with that, since that’s still way faster than DSL. And the costs for that are (I imagine) much lower since each tower has a way higher coverage (not to mention penetrating the house walls in the first place). This is especially relevant for the countless small towns, where one LTE tower and therefore one single fiber glass strand would be enough.

I dont see how 5G revolutionizes here anything. It just makes existing possibilities faster. Or am I wrong in my thinking?

Or do you think the risk with LTE was so high that there would be no ROI, but with 5G the incentive is high enough that the people would jump on the train? Because I know that in the villages here in Austria (where available) people were quite eager to exchange DSL for LTE (we have an extraordinary high glassfiber coverage here, since there’s basically only one provider subsidized by the country).

 

[makzr]

I‘m totally with the thread starter.

Right now (and probably for the next 3 years) 5G is totally overhyped.

First, the technology is way more expensive than 4G (for providers to install towers). Therefore it will take years until it is really available outside of major cities.

Second, 5G is only faster than 4G when you are very close to the tower. Otherwise there is no real improvement over 4G (for normal users).

Here in Germany we don‘t have proper 4G in most places ... It will take years until they installed 5G.

 

[hirsthirst]

My assumption - and I'm no expert - is that we're hitting the limits of existing spectrum in high-demand situations (eg: the Olympics, big concerts, New Years Eve etc) and that technologies relying on high availability need yet more still 24/7. Imagine the loads from every sensor on every machine in a big car factory or similar.

5G removes those current limitations & provides so much more headroom for concurrent usage - it's not (primarily) about faster Netflix on smartphones.

 

[eulslix]

My assumption - and I'm no expert - is that we're hitting the limits of existing spectrum in high-demand situations (eg: the Olympics, big concerts, New Years Eve etc) and that technologies relying on high availability need yet more still 24/7. Imagine the loads from every sensor on every machine in a big car factory or similar.

5G removes those current limitations & provides so much more headroom for concurrent usage - it's not (primarily) about faster Netflix on smartphones.

But isn’t that EXACTLY the reason why WiFi 6 was created?

“Wi-Fi 6 is the next-generation wireless standard that’s faster than 802.11ac. More than speed, it will provide better performance in congested areas, from stadiums to your own device-packed home”

To be honest, I can exactly remember when I had internet problems. Which is logical, since it were the most frustrating moments.

- For once, yesterday, and everyday for that matter, in the escalator at home (interrupting a chat conversation). 5G wont solve that. WiFi could
- Whenever im in the supermarket or a bigger building, streaming music, getting no connection. 5G cant solve that. WiFi does.
- Everytime I ride the metro. 5G can solve that. And so does LTE.
- Whenever I ride the train and either LTE coverage goes down or we hit a tunnel. 5G could solve that, I kind of doubt that though since the train hits 300km/h which is roughly 85 Meters/s. If they put thousands of 5G tower along the track, the internet would still need to handover every 6 seconds (effectively even less due to overlaps). I doubt that’s efficient. WiFi wont solve that, but maybe LTE will.
- Whenever I’m on the plane with no WiFi. Obviously, 5G wont solve this
- Whenever I’m hiking or Mountainbiking and I have no LTE coverage to share a beautiful moment. I dont even care about the speed. I just want to share it. Neither 5G nor WiFi nor LTE will solve this (Starlink may though)
- Whenever I’m visiting someone in a small town with ****** coverage. 5G can solve this, but so can LTE.
- Whenever I’m abroad and have no WiFi access. Buying a prepaid card or better roaming contracts will solve this.
- Whenever I’m at a concert and there’s no reception. Both 5G and WiFi 6 solve this.

So at least for my use cases... I don’t see much benefits. I think we have so many problems when it comes to connectivity that can be solved with current technology. Wherever there could be 5G, there could’ve been LTE in the first place. It’s not as if LTE excludes 5G, you can start with the first and iterate.
The majority of the world doesn’t need 5G yet. It will need 5G once the rest of their problems will get solved (think Maslow). So far, it only solves the privileged people’s problems (which I’m ironically a part of), a minority. It’s an expensive technology unaffordable to many parts of this world.

5G is like buying yourself a 50K TV. It will make staying home nicer, but outside of your bubble it wont have any impact (at least for many years to come).

 

[makzr]

My assumption - and I'm no expert - is that we're hitting the limits of existing spectrum in high-demand situations (eg: the Olympics, big concerts, New Years Eve etc) and that technologies relying on high availability need yet more still 24/7. Imagine the loads from every sensor on every machine in a big car factory or similar.

5G removes those current limitations & provides so much more headroom for concurrent usage - it's not (primarily) about faster Netflix on smartphones.

Sure ... but are you buying a phone for your everyday usage or for "high-demand situations"?
Don't get me wrong, 5G is the future!
I'm just buying a phone for now, not for the future...

 

[Juicy Box]

The term 5G is often used without differentiating the type of 5G, 5G mobile or 5G fixed wireless access.

In the US, I personally think that 5G mobile for cell phones will have little impact on most people over what is currently used, especially for the next 5ish or more years. People that think once they get their 5G iPhone, that they will never use LTE again are going to be disappointed, as many people will still be using LTE for many years to come.

But, 5G FWA could be a huge game changer for many people, as it will bring much needed competition in the home internet market, something that has been lacking for many homes in the US.

 

[eulslix]

The term 5G is often used without differentiating the type of 5G, 5G mobile or 5G fixed wireless access.

In the US, I personally think that 5G mobile for cell phones will have little impact on most people over what is currently used, especially for the next 5ish or more years. People that think once they get their 5G iPhone, that they will never use LTE again are going to be disappointed, as many people will still be using LTE for many years to come.

But, 5G FWA could be a huge game changer for many people, as it will bring much needed competition in the home internet market, something that has been lacking for many homes in the US.

Ok, now THAT makes sense. Thank you, didn’t know about this. Read up a bit on it and I really like the idea!

 

[0989382]

The Apple haters:

"No 5G, rubbish"

If Apple had included 5G: "Forcing us to pay for unfinished technology with no choice of 4G model"...

If Apple included 5G and a 4G option: "Fragmented, unclear, stupid lineup, Steve Jobs would never allow that"

Ladies and gentlemen, the Macrumors hate machine is alive and strong..

 

[eulslix]

The Apple haters:

"No 5G, rubbish"

If Apple had included 5G: "Forcing us to pay for unfinished technology with no choice of 4G model"...

If Apple included 5G and a 4G option: "Fragmented, unclear, stupid lineup, Steve Jobs would never allow that"

Ladies and gentlemen, the Macrumors hate machine is alive and strong..

This is not about Apple for me personally, just about the industry as a whole. I obviously wouldn’t say no to 5G capabilities in my phone, if there’s no downsides to it. But at the same time, I don’t understand how so many people here make such a big deal out of it, as if it was a key differentiator. To me its an incremental update at most.

What “vertical smile” mentioned though makes a lot of sense, which doesnt have much to do with mobile 5G though

 

[0989382]

This is not about Apple for me personally, just about the industry as a whole. I obviously wouldn’t say no to 5G capabilities in my phone, if there’s no downsides to it. But at the same time, I don’t understand how so many people here make such a big deal out of it, as if it was a key differentiator. To me its an incremental update at most.

What “vertical smile” mentioned though makes a lot of sense, which doesnt have much to do with mobile 5G though

I'm sure it is superior and welcome improvements are present, but I'm not too fussed as to when. 3G was amazing for me. 4G better. 5G, better? But either way, 4G is more than good enough for me.

I just hope 5G doesn't make the radiation issue more worrying .. :S

 

[Juicy Box]

I'm sure it is superior

I wouldn't use the term Superior, as mobile 5G will have some serious limitations compared to 3G and LTE.

While 3G and LTE are very similar, mobile 5G is a different technology. It does have many good features that makes it better than LTE, but it also has limitations that will make it hard to implement, and coverage maps won't look anything like the coverage maps of LTE.

Even if an area has good mobile 5G coverage, that doesn't mean that LTE will not be used, as 5G could have issues penetrating buildings.

Anyone that thinks that once they have a 5G iPhone that they won't ever need LTE again will have a big surprise coming to them.

 

[A_Flying_Panda]

5G is overrated, for smartphones at least.
I have gigabit fiber connection at home, which has superior connection speed and latency than 5G, still I can't think of something that I'm only able to do under wifi.
5G has 'reduced' latency, but remember, it's still regular old fiber connection, just like your home internet, from the base station to date centers.
the only think I can think of, in a few years, is that maybe we can go 'cloud'. leave heavy computing and resources to a cloud computer hosted at home or at a data center, such as Nvidia game streaming. however this is not mainstream even for home use, not to mention mobile application.

 

[2Xtreme21]

You’re going to need something with high speed & bandwidth and low latency to handle the communication required between autonomous vehicles and other IoT connected devices in the future. That’ll be where 5G shines. Right now it’s not at all necessary to have 5G and seems to simply be an excuse for manufacturers and service providers to charge more.

 

[BornAgainMac]

USC-C, iOS 14, and a better camera will be better than 5G.

 

[BeeGood]

This is not about Apple for me personally, just about the industry as a whole. I obviously wouldn’t say no to 5G capabilities in my phone, if there’s no downsides to it. But at the same time, I don’t understand how so many people here make such a big deal out of it, as if it was a key differentiator. To me its an incremental update at most.

What “vertical smile” mentioned though makes a lot of sense, which doesnt have much to do with mobile 5G though

You’re correct to think this. With respect to mobile, in 2019, 5G isn’t relevant. All of the people sitting around waiting for the 5G iPhone don’t really understand how far off it is from even being close to ubiquitous (at least in the US). That’s not happening next year.

I guess there is an argument from a mobile perspective that you want a device that is future-proofed, but I would prefer Apple focus on things that i can enjoy and can be realized this year.

TL;DR version: 5G is important, its just not important for mobile right now.