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5G Rollout Disappointments

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Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#41

Post by jackvalentine »

f6v wrote: post #31
ksec wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5G is about capacity, if you want more people to use the network, using more Data, and more affordable. Then you want 5G. Yes, your 1Gbps Ethernet is enough for majority of your needs. Except you are not the only one using the 1Gbps Ethernet.

> 5G is about capacity If that’s right, then all the consumer-oriented ads for 5G are pointless.

They really are, but you can’t convince people to upgrade their handset on ‘our network is going to get shittier and shitter unless you move to a new technology’.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#42

Post by ohazi »

arnaudsm wrote: post #39

I have to mention the elephant in the room : many carriers push customers to replace their home wired connection with 4G/5G modems. These short term gains ruin the game for everyone. Wireless bandwidth is precious.

Sure, but is anyone (who has an actual choice) actually choosing to do this? From what I can tell, carriers seem to run a lot of really stupid ads and keep the marketing money faucet flowing for a long time before they finally give up.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#43

Post by roxgib »

jackvalentine wrote: post #41
f6v wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 5G is about capacity If that’s right, then all the consumer-oriented ads for 5G are pointless.

They really are, but you can’t convince people to upgrade their handset on ‘our network is going to get shittier and shitter unless you move to a new technology’.

But it's not like they're dismantling the 4G infrastructure yet right? For a while at least I would have assumed people moving to 5G would steadily free up capacity on 4G bands.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#44

Post by muro »

blensor wrote: post #17
tommiegannert wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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

Similar if you are from Switzerland and cross any border. If you are in Switzerland semi-regularly, either get a plan that has cheap roaming in and out of EU, or two SIMs.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#45

Post by fuzzfactor »

When Sprint first built out its digital cellphone network, their slogan was "you can hear a pin drop".

It was basically true, this was more clarity and intelligibility than the full-quality land line POTS.

After a year or two their airwaves got crowded and it became apparent they were compressing the audio enough to be noticeably way worse than the POTS was.

Cell carriers seem to have kept performance at that low level ever since.

Plus lots of times it seems like it's no longer full-duplex, after a pause more like voice-activated from either end before it starts transmitting to the other party.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#46

Post by Kwpolska »

makeitdouble wrote: post #32
ksec wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5G is about capacity, if you want more people to use the network, using more Data, and more affordable. Then you want 5G. Yes, your 1Gbps Ethernet is enough for majority of your needs. Except you are not the only one using the 1Gbps Ethernet.

I think this message should have been at the top of the 5G marketing, and would have helped the reception of the technology as bringing an altruistic angle. Right now, as it was pushed as something we're supposed to want for ourseleves and allow us to do rocket surgery from our phones, people just got burned and either learned to kill it in the settings or bitch about it all day long. I was watching a wireless home b…

> I think this message should have been at the top of the 5G marketing, and would have helped the reception of the technology as bringing an altruistic angle.

Meanwhile, 3 out of the 4 big networks in Poland market it as a premium feature, and only offer 5G to the customers on more expensive plans or for extra fees. (The network that gives 5G to everyone is Plus, and their plans are cheaper as well.)

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#47

Post by jaclaz »

makeitdouble wrote: post #32
ksec wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5G is about capacity, if you want more people to use the network, using more Data, and more affordable. Then you want 5G. Yes, your 1Gbps Ethernet is enough for majority of your needs. Except you are not the only one using the 1Gbps Ethernet.

I think this message should have been at the top of the 5G marketing, and would have helped the reception of the technology as bringing an altruistic angle. Right now, as it was pushed as something we're supposed to want for ourseleves and allow us to do rocket surgery from our phones, people just got burned and either learned to kill it in the settings or bitch about it all day long. I was watching a wireless home b…

At least here in Italy, we were hassled with those kind of "rocket surgery from your phone" :) ads, and told (whether right or wrong) that we had to change most of our TV's so that they could narrow the video transmission band to allow for more band for this marvellous 5G.

It has been (and it will be) a major cost for families, besides the complication, especially for the older people that have now to deal with either a crappy external decoder or a crappy smart TV (as "normal" TV are in practice unobtanium).

And all we got (where it works) is just a lot more people viewing videos on Tiktok.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#48

Post by lucumo »

I just figured I'd do some measurements of the different speeds.

Location: in the center of a modern well isolated family home, with HR++ glass. So not ideal for optimal reception, but I didn't care to get up from the kitchen table.

Tested with speedtest.net in the browser with Android Chrome. Network is T-Mobile NL.

5G: 69.52 Mbps down, 37 ms ping 4G: 56.79 Mbps down, 34 ms ping 3G: 4.01 Mbps down, 56 ms ping

I'm not sure if T-Mobile is still keeping their 3G network at optimal performance. All their competitors have phased out 3G. They'll probably follow soon (though only 2G phase out is announced).

Anyway, 4G → 5G is an improvement, but not orders of magnitude. That might be a bit much to expect though.

I also measured my wifi/fiber connection. Got to 162.86 Mbps and 17 ms ping. Still much better than the mobile networks. (And lower than I expected, so probably time to debug a bit.)

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#49

Post by arnaudsm »

ohazi wrote: post #42
arnaudsm wrote: post #39

I have to mention the elephant in the room : many carriers push customers to replace their home wired connection with 4G/5G modems. These short term gains ruin the game for everyone. Wireless bandwidth is precious.

Sure, but is anyone (who has an actual choice) actually choosing to do this? From what I can tell, carriers seem to run a lot of really stupid ads and keep the marketing money faucet flowing for a long time before they finally give up.

A dozen of my millennial friends do not have a wired internet connection. Gen Z even more, especially students.

Re: 5G Rollout Disappointments

#50

Post by jnsaff2 »

Mistletoe wrote: post #26
ksec wrote: post #19

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…

Why would you flag this? That’s not what flagging is for and is one of the asbolute worst features of HN. It amounts to censorship based on user preferences. It’s a real article from IEEE, just because you don’t like it or agree with it doesn’t mean you flag it. > What does [flagged] mean? >Users flagged the post as breaking the guidelines or otherwise not belonging on HN.

If you think that flagging amounts to censorship then I guess you don't believe that there are bad faith actors who exploit vulnerabilities in human cognition? I don't think this ieee article is nowhere near flagging territory but there are plenty genocide and fossil fuel shills around here.
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