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5G Rollout Disappointments

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Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#11

Post by hedora »

mjevans wrote: post #2

Skimmed, it seems like exactly what the reader might have suspected. * More users on the 5G sites dragging that greenfield under-used speed mark down to the more typical value. * Much of the hype 'best' with extremely high HZ spectrum that has short distance and low penetration E.G. Mostly giant sports stadiums. * Suburbs and rural areas not a good match for the distance (frequency use) or capital investment required…

Rural coverage is the only problem I had with 4G, even living in the city, etc. These days, the land line phone company has abandoned our area, and the cell companies carpet bomb us for unlimited 5G home internet service that doesn’t exist near us (despite the fact that we get a 5G connection at home). So, it is starlink for us.

Count me as unimpressed with 5G. I wish they’d focus on better geographic coverage and more reliable coverage instead.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#12

Post by Fragoel2 »

nextweek2 wrote: post #10
mschild wrote: post #4

I live in a large European city and am very often out and about and use my phone to navigate and consume content. I simply don't see the need for 5G. 4G was a major stepup in speed and given the rise of smartphones and platforms like YouTube, the speed increase made sense. There was an actual use for it. The speed increase for 5G seems to not really be needed though? At least for a majority of people 4G seems to do e…

Faster speeds might not seem necessary, however you have to remember you are sharing the bandwidth. The quicker you can get your data the less time you spend using bandwidth. If I can halve the download time that allows another user to use the bandwidth sooner.

Indeed, the article mentions that the 'killer app' of 5G has yet to be found

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#13

Post by throwaway4good »

Back when it was 4G western suppliers were under really strong competition from Chinese suppliers (ZTE and Huawei). Now these suppliers are banned/effectively banned in most Western countries. And we are left what seems to be just Ericsson and surprisingly things have gotten a lot more expensive, only slowly built-out, and not really that good.

Having said that, I just went through Copenhagen airport and the 5G network there is really good: Very low latency, very fast initial connect, and very fast download speeds.

So 5G can deliver the end-user experience it promised.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#14

Post by nizmow »

Anecdata: in Sydney, Australia, 5G on Telstra is incredibly fast (I get more than 1 gigabit at my apartment, but more typical / busier cells seem to be between 300-500Mb), and my experience using it mostly just for web browsing is it’s streets ahead of 4G.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#15

Post by yummypaint »

Klathmon wrote: post #9

I've just found that any time my phone says it's on 5G, it barely works at all. I've actually gone in and set the preferred network to LTE and every now and then I try setting it back, and almost every time I set it back within the day. Doing some speed tests back and forth, LTE tends to have significantly less latency, higher bandwidth, and just works while every single web page load on 5G feels like a gamble.

I think phones lying about their connection strength is a much broader problem. My phone isn't even 5G capable, but it will show me 4/5 bars or even 100% strength with full LTE when it is provably unable to transfer data. Carriers know that lying to people's faces makes them less likely to complain about poor service, just like how they lie to our faces about their service maps. There really needs to be some kind of legally codified standard for how phones report signal strength.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#16

Post by JW_00000 »

yummypaint wrote: post #15
Klathmon wrote: post #9

I've just found that any time my phone says it's on 5G, it barely works at all. I've actually gone in and set the preferred network to LTE and every now and then I try setting it back, and almost every time I set it back within the day. Doing some speed tests back and forth, LTE tends to have significantly less latency, higher bandwidth, and just works while every single web page load on 5G feels like a gamble.

I think phones lying about their connection strength is a much broader problem. My phone isn't even 5G capable, but it will show me 4/5 bars or even 100% strength with full LTE when it is provably unable to transfer data. Carriers know that lying to people's faces makes them less likely to complain about poor service, just like how they lie to our faces about their service maps. There really needs to be some kind of…

Isn't that a case of the phone manufacturer lying, and not the carrier?

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#17

Post by blensor »

tommiegannert wrote: post #6
mschild wrote: post #4

I live in a large European city and am very often out and about and use my phone to navigate and consume content. I simply don't see the need for 5G. 4G was a major stepup in speed and given the rise of smartphones and platforms like YouTube, the speed increase made sense. There was an actual use for it. The speed increase for 5G seems to not really be needed though? At least for a majority of people 4G seems to do e…

(Outside Zürich) I see 5G as motivated by carriers, being able to pack more customers into the same cell. And I would never pay extra for it. My carrier once called and wondered if the 5G is working, and how I experience it. I'm guessing that was a PR stunt, since otherwise I wouldn't have noticed the awesome things they do for me in the background... But I might be too negative on this point. Maybe they actually wan…

Tangentially, if you are from outside Switzerland make sure to know your roaming charges very very well.

Swiss carriers have gigantic roaming charges.

Every time. I fly through Zurich (from Austria) I blow through my roaming limit 60 seconds after landing because I forgot to disable data.

1MB/16€

Yes that is Megabyte not Gigabyte

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#18

Post by throwaway049 »

mschild wrote: post #4

I live in a large European city and am very often out and about and use my phone to navigate and consume content. I simply don't see the need for 5G. 4G was a major stepup in speed and given the rise of smartphones and platforms like YouTube, the speed increase made sense. There was an actual use for it. The speed increase for 5G seems to not really be needed though? At least for a majority of people 4G seems to do e…

In the UK there are companies offering 5g as an alternative to fixed line at your home. Do you have something like that where you live?

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#19

Post by ksec »

I am thinking should I flag this. And thinking how low can ieee get? ieee publishing 20+ years ago were not great, but they wont bad. Right now this piece has no engineering insight into it, zero understanding of how MNOs across the planet earth work, no idea of 5G upgrade cycle both backend and front end, and zero mention of Pandemic / COVID delaying upgrading work. So what is the point of this article? Or are they now simply another marketing / PR company to downplay the 5G and hype 6G next?

Are we still at the stage people think Real 5G = mmWave? Which is what I believe 99.99999% of the internet comments were suggesting and at least 90% of HN believes in 2022.

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