Other What’s the Point of 5G?

[Freakonomics101]

Someone feel free to help me understand what the point of 5G is when it comes to cellular networks.

Other than higher speeds, why spend all that money on 5G when it can be used to make LTE even better and stronger? Isn’t 5G going to reach even shorter distances?

People claim VoLTE isn’t as reliable as it should be. Why start on something new when the building out of the older network isn’t stable enough yet?

 

[bpeeps]

What's the point of new iPhones every year? Technology advances and we advance along with it because it makes the things we do easier and more convenient. If companies had this mentality, we'd still be on Edge networks and using flip phones.

 

[JPack]

5G enables humans to control machines in real time (much lower latency). It also allows machines to communicate with other machines in real time.

Deployment of 5G in the U.S. will use millimeter wave so more base stations will be needed due to the shorter distance. In China, 5G will use existing LTE frequencies so range will be about the same as now. This is one of the reasons why 5G rollout will be slower in the U.S. as carriers need to install many more base stations and negotiate with landowners where those stations will go.

 

[brofkand]

AT&T's 3G network was far from mature when they started deploying 4G LTE. Especially true with T-Mobile - they had a large amount of their network still only 2G EDGE when they started deploying 4G LTE.

5G allows very low latency, high speed communications. Imagine applications like a rush hour's worth of cars all connected to 5G. With the bandwidth and low latency afforded by 5G, they can all talk to each other and drive themselves with no issues once technology matures. With current LTE technology that type of scenario just isn't possible.

Expect to see fixed-site wireless internet (IE; a cottage on a mountaintop with no buried fiber or other communications lines anywhere close by) become much more prevalent with 5G.

5G is not necessarily for people downloading Fortnite to their phone faster, although that will certainly be one of it's major uses.

 

[tim.engen]

Someone feel free to help me understand what the point of 5G is when it comes to cellular networks.

Other than higher speeds, why spend all that money on 5G when it can be used to make LTE even better and stronger? Isn’t 5G going to reach even shorter distances?

People claim VoLTE isn’t as reliable as it should be. Why start on something new when the building out of the older network isn’t stable enough yet?

5G will also handle capacity better. People sometimes seen 3G speeds on LTE cause the networks are congested. 5G will change that. Plus TMobile wants to offer TV over cellular and LTE would likely crash from that. 5Gb would be way better. Sprint B41 will be part of 5G which includes Massive mimo which is something you can not do on FDD bands. Plus all the stuff other people have commented with

 

[Juicy Box]

What's the point of new iPhones every year? Technology advances and we advance along with it because it makes the things we do easier and more convenient. If companies had this mentality, we'd still be on Edge networks and using flip phones.

5G is not necessarily for people downloading Fortnite to their phone faster

Someone posted a thread the other day asking why people would get a 2019 LTE iPhone if a 5G is coming 2020ish and the LTE phone would be obsolete....

Expect to see fixed-site wireless internet (IE; a cottage on a mountaintop with no buried fiber or other communications lines anywhere close by) become much more prevalent with 5G.

Yup...

Home Wifi with 5G will be a big one, and it has already launched in some places in the US.

 

[brofkand]

Someone posted a thread the other day asking why people would get a 2019 LTE iPhone if a 5G is coming 2020ish and the LTE phone would be obsolete....

Yup...

Home Wifi with 5G will be a big one, and it has already launched in some places in the US.

Verizon is just now decommissioning their 3G network at the end of this year. LTE will be around for quite a while. Imagine still using an iPhone 4S in 2019. I'm sure there are still a lot of them out in the wild, but not many compared to the number of LTE devices.

 

[kaardowiq]

Verizon is just now decommissioning their 3G network at the end of this year. LTE will be around for quite a while. Imagine still using an iPhone 4S in 2019. I'm sure there are still a lot of them out in the wild, but not many compared to the number of LTE devices.

Just depends on the country ;-)

There`re countries you wouldn't expect like Germany (where carriers still sell 3G only contracts). And even the opposite - Indian celluars with 4G/VoLTE only Carriers.

In Germany there`s a big player to tell they're shutting down 3G within the next two years... The fallback'll be 2G - yay! Even the coverage of 4G isn't almost 90%. Compared to the EU the German coverage doesn't seem to be that good.

 

[brofkand]

Just depends on the country ;-)

Sure, I was speaking from the US viewpoint obviously. But 3G is still very prevalent in much of the world.

 

[Jimmy James]

I’m already concerned about LTE speeds. If a video unexpected auto plays it blows out my data plan.

 

[kaardowiq]

I’m already concerned about LTE speeds. If a video unexpected auto plays it blows out my data plan.

Speed and Dataplans do not need to be in any relation... Here we have full coverage by any protocol but limited by speed (e.g. 1, 3, 5, 10,.. MBit). Or in Germany there's a limitation by the used medium like 10GB with unlimited speed on 4G and 3G only limited by 1Mbit with unlimited data volume... So 200 Gigs/Month isn't that special with Netflix, Spotify etc. for about 20$/line.

 

[chabig]

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-cant-do-now-on-my-iphone-x-with-lte.2162550/

 

[Freakonomics101]

Someone posted a thread the other day asking why people would get a 2019 LTE iPhone if a 5G is coming 2020ish and the LTE phone would be obsolete....

Yup...

Home Wifi with 5G will be a big one, and it has already launched in some places in the US.

That’s why I think Apple should do 18 month releases like they did with the 2018 iPad Pro.

 

[Freakonomics101]

Verizon is just now decommissioning their 3G network at the end of this year. LTE will be around for quite a while. Imagine still using an iPhone 4S in 2019. I'm sure there are still a lot of them out in the wild, but not many compared to the number of LTE devices.

My old landlord still uses an iPhone 4 with AT&T. She wonders why her signal isn’t as good as it used to be. I tried talking her into upgrading but she said there’s nothing wrong with it so no need to replace it. For what she uses it for, it still works for her but she’d like an iPhone with LTE on it.

 

[brofkand]

My old landlord still uses an iPhone 4 with AT&T. She wonders why her signal isn’t as good as it used to be. I tried talking her into upgrading but she said there’s nothing wrong with it so no need to replace it. For what she uses it for, it still works for her but she’d like an iPhone with LTE on it.

A few members of my extended family have Verizon basic phones on the 3G network and have to figure something out by the end of the year.

 

[tim.engen]

My old landlord still uses an iPhone 4 with AT&T. She wonders why her signal isn’t as good as it used to be. I tried talking her into upgrading but she said there’s nothing wrong with it so no need to replace it. For what she uses it for, it still works for her but she’d like an iPhone with LTE on it.

What does she get for data on it. 3G?

 

[Juicy Box]

Verizon is just now decommissioning their 3G network at the end of this year.

I had not heard of this.

This is a shame, my iPhone still occasionally uses 3G where the LTE coverage sucks.

LTE will be around for quite a while.

Yea, I didn't agree with the creator of that other thread about LTE phones becoming obsolete once 5G phones are out.

Actually, most posts on the thread stated that 5G on mobile phones was not a priority for many people.

LTE is plenty fast when I am in a good coverage area. When it comes to just internet speed on a cell phone, I couldn't picture me needing anymore more than what LTE provides.
[doublepost=1547072433][/doublepost]

That’s why I think Apple should do 18 month releases like they did with the 2018 iPad Pro.

I don't see anything wrong with the yearly cycle.

I am curious, what issues would an 18 month cycle prevent?

 

[zorinlynx]

One thing that's strange about all the "5G" hype is that... LTE was supposed to be a technology for the long term (hence Long Term Evolution being the name) and that the idea was to keep improving and expanding upon it for faster and faster speeds.

Yet now the industry is moving away from "LTE" towards this nebulous "5G". What happened to the "long-term" part of LTE?

 

[Freakonomics101]

I had not heard of this.

This is a shame, my iPhone still occasionally uses 3G where the LTE coverage sucks.


Yea, I didn't agree with the creator of that other thread about LTE phones becoming obsolete once 5G phones are out.

Actually, most posts on the thread stated that 5G on mobile phones was not a priority for many people.

LTE is plenty fast when I am in a good coverage area. When it comes to just internet speed on a cell phone, I couldn't picture me needing anymore more than what LTE provides.
[doublepost=1547072433][/doublepost]
I don't see anything wrong with the yearly cycle.

I am curious, what issues would an 18 month cycle prevent?

Would slightly help with the smartphone saturation issue as well as more time to properly gather interesting technologies and features into the new iPhone. I have no problem with 18 months cycle as my iPhone X runs and acts the same as a release day iPhone X. Since they care about recycling, there’s another benefit.

They need to focus on making iOS 13 more beneficial to OLED screens. Dark mode, for sure. Also, notifications popping up but the rest of the screen being black. Can you imagine how big of an impact a dark mode would make on battery life? A lot of us want it for that reason alone.

One thing that's strange about all the "5G" hype is that... LTE was supposed to be a technology for the long term (hence Long Term Evolution being the name) and that the idea was to keep improving and expanding upon it for faster and faster speeds.

Yet now the industry is moving away from "LTE" towards this nebulous "5G". What happened to the "long-term" part of LTE?

I look at it as LTE 2.0 or 5G LTE. I agree with you, though. They should continue to expand LTE and make it better... add necessary technologies to the existing hardware. It’d be cheaper and faster to go with that route.

 

[Juicy Box]

Yet now the industry is moving away from "LTE" towards this nebulous "5G". What happened to the "long-term" part of LTE?

I don't think the industry is moving away from LTE. I think the 5G capable phones will also have LTE.

Actually, due to the type of technology, 5G may never be as widespread as LTE is. I think I read somewhere that the coverage area of a 5G node is about 300 meters, which is much smaller than LTE is now, meaning that it could be many years before 5G gets a significant fraction of the coverage of LTE.

5G will probably be utilized more at stationary locations or high density/high traffic areas, rather than true wide coverage mobile like LTE.

 

[TheIntruder]

$$$

Qualcomm wants to sell more new chips.

The Telco cartel is pushing the technology for stationary service applications, possibly allowing them to apply the mobile metered service business model to homes and offices as well.

For the Content cartel, better accessibility will reinforce the consumption of their product via the rental/subscription, not ownership, business model.

 

[The Game 161]

Lightening speeds of course...

 

[rbrian]

There's absolutely no point in 5g. Wake me up when it gets to 11g, which will be well worth it because it's one more than 10.

 

[WarriorX]

It's not even real 5G too. LOL.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...lution-dont-fooled-they-arent-5-g/2513026002/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/w...int-if-its-on-the-market-right-now-2019-01-08

 

[jpn]

Sure, I was speaking from the US viewpoint obviously. But 3G is still very prevalent in much of the world.

in terms of sheer number of countries, this may be so. yes, 3G exists.
but actually LTE overtook 3G even several years ago to be the most used standard.

all developed countries have been relying on LTE for several years now.
and countries like vietnam, cambodia, myanmar, malaysia, china, all have well deployed LTE networks.
[doublepost=1547083034][/doublepost]

Someone feel free to help me understand what the point of 5G is when it comes to cellular networks.

Other than higher speeds, why spend all that money on 5G when it can be used to make LTE even better and stronger? Isn’t 5G going to reach even shorter distances?

People claim VoLTE isn’t as reliable as it should be. Why start on something new when the building out of the older network isn’t stable enough yet?

most of the posters in this thread you started ignore your point:
"why spend all that money on 5G when it can be used to make LTE even better and stronger?"

this is indeed the point.
all the times that the standard has changed has left such tremendous difference between the "max theoretical speed" and speeds that are actually achieved.

all carriers market these newer standards.
and make vague promises about greater speed.
but actually very very very few of the carriers ever deploy enough of the new standard equipment to make higher speeds really felt in a consistent way across their network.

as a standard, the only real advantage for the next 10 years of 5G is that the internet of things will have more connected devices and maybe that reality won't by itself slow down the entire network by using this new standard.

other than that, i bet that achieved 5G speeds will not be any faster than an optimized LTE network.

you are right.