I remember when I tried LTE for the first time and was blown away by huge speeds. Thing is none of this matters when plenty of clients use the same system and the provider decides to throttle all of them.
Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
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Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#52Frankly I'm wondering if 5G will ever take off. One problem with 5G is that it uses higher frequencies, which carry more bandwidth, but don't go through obstacles so well. So you need much more hotspots, which A is creating zoning nightmares and B is an expensive proposition. Really performance is similar to that of wifi. So the question is why not just use wifi? There's a bunch of wifi hardware already installed, we…
A big advantage is that 5G is running on licensed spectrum, so not just anybody can send signals in the spectrum, this should give much less interference. Public WIFI is also really bad from a security perspective.
Another big advantage of 5G over 4G is that it can _also_ run over unlicensed spectrum. This enables more use cases like enhanced mobile broadbands, device-to-device mesh networks, private 5G networks, etc.
Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#53I'm not disputing 5G is faster, but was congestion taken into account for this test? 4G for me is noticeably slower than when I first got a 4G phone, primarily because the network has become more congested as it became the mainstream.
It hasn't become more congested. The providers throttle on purpose to reduce costs.
Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#54Frankly I'm wondering if 5G will ever take off. One problem with 5G is that it uses higher frequencies, which carry more bandwidth, but don't go through obstacles so well. So you need much more hotspots, which A is creating zoning nightmares and B is an expensive proposition. Really performance is similar to that of wifi. So the question is why not just use wifi? There's a bunch of wifi hardware already installed, we…
Aren't some ISPs and MVNOs already doing this though? Like Republic Wireless, Project Fi, Comcast's mobile service, etc. They eagerly prefer WiFi hotspots and give you access to a network of them with a cellular network in place as a fallback.
It tears down the connections though.
Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#55What standard is this now? Last time I tried to read up on 5G, it was described as a collection of ideas for a new standard rather than one specific technology. IS this still the case (i.e. different companies work on competing technologies) or does 5G by now mean the same for all companies?
http://www.3gpp.org/about-3gpp/about-3gpp has information about the generations of mobile systems. 5G will be the latest generation and isn't 100% formalized.
> The introduction of 5G will be the result of improvements in LTE, LTE-Advanced and LTE Pro, but this will soon be followed by a major technology step, with the prospect of an entirely new air interface. The first drop of 'New Radio' features, in Release 15, will form the first Phase of 5G deployments.
> Full compliance with the ITU’s IMT-2020 requirements is anticipated with the completion of 3GPP Release 16 at the end of 2019 - In Phase 2 of the 3GPP 5G effort.
Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#56Faster speed is great, but what about bumping the data caps? I was able to hit ~70mb/s over 4G several years ago (in ideal conditions). That's enough to burn through most bandwidth caps in a couple of minutes! Even most "unlimited" plans still throttle you after some point.
The test was on the operator www.elisa.fi Most of their dataplans are unlimited (without any throttle).
Yea, my comments mostly apply to the USA. The rest of the world seems much saner when it comes to mobile pricing.
Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#57Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#58I'm not disputing 5G is faster, but was congestion taken into account for this test? 4G for me is noticeably slower than when I first got a 4G phone, primarily because the network has become more congested as it became the mainstream.
5G is less about just faster network anyways. The goal as far as I understand is to use something like gre bonding to achieve some support for transparent handoff between base station and home network. So in theory if you are in your own wifi the network should not need to talk to your phone.
Would this transparent handoff work for just calls, or for data as well? I'd love to see a solution to the wifi to 4g data handoff issues I run into.
Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#59Obviously the more speed the better for PC and residential internet connections, but for me and probably a lot of other people 4G is more than fast enough for what we need on our phones.
In fact, I have the AT&T "Unlimited Choice" plan on my phone, which caps my bandwidth at 3Mbps and it's been totally fine. I never find myself wishing I had a faster cell phone connection.
Re: Real world 4G vs. 5G test shows 14x bandwidth increase
#60I've never really needed more than 4g and from what I read 5g has severe problems with penetrating solid structures.
We have a tiny screen on our phone how much more bandwidth do we need? You would probably have to hold the screen directly to your eyeball to need 4k videos on your phone.