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Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#51

Post by fragmede »

LarsAlereon wrote: post #4

Most providers have optimized their 5G service for dense urban environments where you have direct line-of-sight (meaning no walls or even foliage) to a nearby transmitter. The idea is to improve the experience in major cities and at event centers. T-Mobile is the only provider I'm aware of that has optimized for higher performance when you're not next to a tower. They operate a long-range 5G network that is a direct…

tmobile's also the only one with a low frequency (600 Mhz vs Ghz) 5G spectrum to do deployment in/under.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#52

Post by hallway_monitor »

roxgib wrote: post #50

It wouldn't be so bad if phones were better at switching to the best available signal, they they could use the efficient 5G connection when it's available, but fall back to 4G when the 5G is blocked by a building or something (which I gather is more common due to the high frequencies used in 5G). But they seem to insist on connecting to a crappy 5G signal even if an excellent 4G signal is available. Same with 3G, whi…

This is inexcusable. I thought my phone was defective for weeks. I would get ZERO data, move 100 yards and have data again. After some Deep Thought™ I disabled 5G and could magically use the Internet from my phone again.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#53

Post by tqi »

kjellsbells wrote: post #45

Having the 5G logo on your phone doesnt necessarily mean your phone is speaking 5G. It's...complicated. - Most US operators do not have ubiquitous 5G radio coverage, so, they do what is called 5G NSA where your traffic ultimately ends up veing processed by the 4G core infrastructure that they have. Which is already overloaded and a bit creaky. - Some operators can do real 5G, "5G SA", where the whole flow end to end…

> They still have scars from their failure to capture the value of smartphone applications in the LTE era.

That's makes a lot of sense and truly, fuck telcos.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#54

Post by dilyevsky »

rr808 wrote: post #15

I wish I could get a 2G phone. 3G I'd settle for. All I want is email, Maps, Uber and a Camera. Everything else is just addicting time wasting behavior. I love when my plan runs out of fast data and puts me on that throttled level.

Oh you can get one except us providers have turned off their 2g base stations

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#55

Post by philliphaydon »

roxgib wrote: post #50

It wouldn't be so bad if phones were better at switching to the best available signal, they they could use the efficient 5G connection when it's available, but fall back to 4G when the 5G is blocked by a building or something (which I gather is more common due to the high frequencies used in 5G). But they seem to insist on connecting to a crappy 5G signal even if an excellent 4G signal is available. Same with 3G, whi…

I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max here in Taiwan. If my 5g goes to 4 bars it switches to 4g.

Is that what you mean?

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#56

Post by bee_rider »

roxgib wrote: post #50

It wouldn't be so bad if phones were better at switching to the best available signal, they they could use the efficient 5G connection when it's available, but fall back to 4G when the 5G is blocked by a building or something (which I gather is more common due to the high frequencies used in 5G). But they seem to insist on connecting to a crappy 5G signal even if an excellent 4G signal is available. Same with 3G, whi…

I wonder if 4G is better now that people who are really enthusiastic about bandwidth usage have moved up to 5G.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#57

Post by hallway_monitor »

rr808 wrote: post #49
maven29 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android 13 has eBPF-based network throttling options in the developer options, which will give you a similar 128kbps experience without sacrificing battery life. This applies on all interfaces, including WLAN, with the affordance of being able to switch back without dropping flows. I wouldn't recommend it for WLAN from a total system capacity perspective, as throttling eats up air-time.

The point is I have no self control. If I could manually switch it I can't be trusted.

Uninstalling the apps helps somewhat. Facebook and Reddit have terrible mobile web experiences, which helps even more!

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is 5G strictly worse than LTE?

#59

Post by TradingPlaces »

Depends which flavor of 5G you are talking about. mmWave is still terrible unless you are right next to a cell. Midband is slower, but a huge improvement over LTE, and uses adjacent bands in many cases.

Verizon and ATT pursued a mmWave first buildout, and now they are catching up on midband. That’s why the C-band issue was so huge last year for them. Unique in the US, T-Mobile did midband-first (it was the point of the Sprint merger —- to get Sprint’s frequency licenses that were good for midband), and they have the most useful 5G network, mostly because of availability.

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