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Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

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Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#41
post #24

It's hard for me to understand why anyone is excited about 5G when most carriers aren't running full bandwidth 4G and have significant data caps. Although 5G may be fast in some markets, 5G on the whole just seems so pointless for consumers.

very low latency sounds nice. Especially for voice and video chat.

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#42
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If new bandwidth / more bandwidth means new market entrants / more market entrants, it'll be great! I am sure that legions of lobbyists, politicians, and businessmen are working diligently as we speak to make sure that doesn't happen, but I want to believe.

>If new bandwidth / more bandwidth means new market entrants / more market entrants, it'll be great! I doubt it. No one is going to build another network of cell towers just because new bandwidth is available

If they can compete with cable internet they sure will.

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#43
post #24

It's hard for me to understand why anyone is excited about 5G when most carriers aren't running full bandwidth 4G and have significant data caps. Although 5G may be fast in some markets, 5G on the whole just seems so pointless for consumers.

I think the importance of 5G is not only tied to the consumer wanting a faster internet. It is tied to potential advances in remote surgeries, automated cars, Amazon drone packages, VR for medical purposes, potential improvements in security, cuts in operational cost by the carriers, etc. It should be seeing similarly to advances in computer power throughout time, to some it makes little difference depending on the t…

> potential advances in remote surgeries

Whoops, truck drove by, there goes the signal!

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#44
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my city, they are dropping poles with 5G radios all over the place, as close as every 150-300 yards. It’s a land rush as the city cannot do anything to stop them, the poles get dropped in all sorts of awkward places. My understanding is that repeaters will be mounted on streetlights as well. Those radios aren’t for phones, they are for fixed wireless with antennas attached to your home. 5G is the cable killer, and…

You still need to run fiber to the radios, and at a couple hundred yards apart, you're going to be running fiber down almost every single street. If the goal is fixed installation, you could have just ran it a few feet more directly to the house. >and eventually the WiFi killer. How is this going to work? The radios you're talking about are very high frequency, so they require line of site.

Don't underestimate the cost difference between running a fibre down a street versus running it into every house.

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#45
post #24

It's hard for me to understand why anyone is excited about 5G when most carriers aren't running full bandwidth 4G and have significant data caps. Although 5G may be fast in some markets, 5G on the whole just seems so pointless for consumers.

My understanding is that 5g is range limited, so those of us who are in non-urban areas are not going to see any benefit, and are likely to see reductions in service as 4g is de-emphasized (judging by Verizon in this area).

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#46
post #2

4G->5G is the equivalent to upgrading from gigabit to 10 gigabit ethernet yet everyone is treating it like some kind of insane technology. I have yet to see what exactly the hype is about.

People seem to have strong opinion that this is the case even though they are most likely wrong. Just some changes: * You will have your own 5G home router micro cells. Factories will have their own 5G networks in unallocate bandwidth. Like Wi-fi but lower latency and better services. * High quality low latency streaming means that gaming consoles will disappear from homes. You can stream games either from servers or…

Of course, once you leave your home....

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#47
post #44
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still need to run fiber to the radios, and at a couple hundred yards apart, you're going to be running fiber down almost every single street. If the goal is fixed installation, you could have just ran it a few feet more directly to the house. >and eventually the WiFi killer. How is this going to work? The radios you're talking about are very high frequency, so they require line of site.

Don't underestimate the cost difference between running a fibre down a street versus running it into every house.

Sure, but running it down the street is comparatively a much bigger cost. And I'm not sure the cost of maintaining a radio on every street corner, individual antennas on every house, and maintaining a clear line of site to every individual antenna is going to be cheaper than burying a few extra feet of fiber in the long run.

Plus running fiber from the street to the house means the residents don't have to worry about heavy rain, trees in their neighbor's yard, or buses impacting their internet service.

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#48
post #24

It's hard for me to understand why anyone is excited about 5G when most carriers aren't running full bandwidth 4G and have significant data caps. Although 5G may be fast in some markets, 5G on the whole just seems so pointless for consumers.

If new bandwidth / more bandwidth means new market entrants / more market entrants, it'll be great! I am sure that legions of lobbyists, politicians, and businessmen are working diligently as we speak to make sure that doesn't happen, but I want to believe.

Notwithstanding this supposed lobbying, we have four nationwide 4G networks—more competition than we have in putatively lobbying free markets like social media, search engines, and cell phone and tablet operating systems. The biggest roadblock to 5G is not lobbyists, but rather NIMBYs complaining about how small cells will clutter up the neighborhood.

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#49
post #24

It's hard for me to understand why anyone is excited about 5G when most carriers aren't running full bandwidth 4G and have significant data caps. Although 5G may be fast in some markets, 5G on the whole just seems so pointless for consumers.

In this day and age where a single page can be tens of MBs, high speeds can be useful even subject to data caps that prevent sustained downloading st those speeds. Also, data caps grew dramatically when 4G made more bandwidth available, and the same will happen for 5G. Verizon’s home 5G service has no data cap.

Re: Bell Labs Researcher Discusses the Realities of 5G

#50
post #45
post #24

It's hard for me to understand why anyone is excited about 5G when most carriers aren't running full bandwidth 4G and have significant data caps. Although 5G may be fast in some markets, 5G on the whole just seems so pointless for consumers.

My understanding is that 5g is range limited, so those of us who are in non-urban areas are not going to see any benefit, and are likely to see reductions in service as 4g is de-emphasized (judging by Verizon in this area).

Move to an urban area? Non-urban areas are inherently expensive to serve with infrastructure, and as we become ever more infrastructure dependent, they become an inherently less efficient and desirable proposition.
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