71–80 of 136 posts
The joys of mandatory obsolescence. Forcing handset churn is environmentally irresponsible. Maybe it is time for landlines to get SMS so people don't have to rely on mobile infrastructure? 5am sentiment but it'd be nice.
The amount of client devices that would need to be replaced is only declining.
a yes, the great tech-poor divide nobody cares when talking about digital central bank currencies or digital government etc.
You do not have to interact with the government or the central bank via these new technologies, the same way you do not have to interact with them via email or phone, since you always have the free option to do your business in person. Although obviously it is a much less convenient way to do so, but convenience isn't a right, and having more money is mostly about living more comfortably and conveniently (past the po…
I guess you don't actually live in the UK then. There is nowhere to go "in person" to interact with HMRC for instance. You can still send them paper forms for most things, but the result will be saved in your online HMRC profile, so you haven't bypassed anything.
>>I would assume a basic free option would have to be provided to legal resident of such country.
You'd assume wrong. The argument is that all of these options are "free" so what are you complaining about.
Same thing is happening with banks - branches are closing down across the country in droves, with a lot of people reporting that they now have to travel 1h+ to their nearest branch if they need to do something in person(and annoyingly banks themselves force that - you can't deposit a cheque over £500 online for instance, you have to do it in person for some idiotic reason)
The joys of mandatory obsolescence. Forcing handset churn is environmentally irresponsible. Maybe it is time for landlines to get SMS so people don't have to rely on mobile infrastructure? 5am sentiment but it'd be nice.
My bet would be that these are mostly devices given to children to watch Youtube and what-not.
> However, calls and texts will continue to work despite the 3G switch off, as 2G won’t be fully switched off until 2033 the latest. This is because 2G is still used for critical infrastructure, including legacy connectivity solutions that typically have a longer product life.
Is it really that much overhead to keep 2G networks operating? It's very difficult to get behind any type of cellular technology when tomorrow it could be turned off.
Has 4G/5G improved? When I lived in the UK (Midlands until 2019) it was entirely unreliable. I'd wager 75% of my connection was on 3G as soon as I was more than 3Km from a town's high street. I can say with confidence that the shift from 4G/LTE to 5G where I live now in British Columbia (Canada) mountains is not fun. It's significantly less reliable. I understand that its 10x faster, but I'd much prefer reliable over…
I live in Northern Ireland, I get 5G pretty much everywhere I've cared to look. I do a lot of cycling and I stream Spotify at max settings and it's never cut out even in the middle of nowhere so I assume I'm getting at least 4G everywhere. In Belfast I get 115/20 mbps down/up with EE, I think I remember hearing there's something dodgy with whether what your phone shows as 5G is actually 5G but that's easily fast enou…
> Furthermore, the study also reveals 21% of those with a 3G handset aren’t willing to upgrade, and will simply continue to use their phone without internet connectivity. My bet would be that these are mostly devices given to children to watch Youtube and what-not. > However, calls and texts will continue to work despite the 3G switch off, as 2G won’t be fully switched off until 2033 the latest. This is because 2G is…
iPhone 5 was the first to support 4G and I’m not sure the 4s or 4 are really suitable for watching YT these days?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Belgium, I've noticed a general "de-servicing" across industries. - Bank offices (and ATMs) disappearing. - Post offices disappearing. - Customer service disappearing (phone especially) in lieu of the always useless "check our frequently asked questions / forums" - Cashiers disappearing in lieu of self checkout. I'm sure it's not just Belgium. The problem appears to be that there's no big enough incentive to servi…
It's not just Belgium, it's everywhere now. Though I must I admit I much prefer self-checkout when shopping. The queues are much faster.
There's a single queue to multiple self-checkout machines. If one is stuck, you won't notice.
For classic checkout, there are queues to cashier 1:1. If one is stuck, especially the one you are waiting in, you will definitely notice.
This, together with limiting the number of open classic checkouts, nudges you toward the self-checkout. KPIs then show, that they are popular and cheaper, so continue will rollout.
Has 4G/5G improved? When I lived in the UK (Midlands until 2019) it was entirely unreliable. I'd wager 75% of my connection was on 3G as soon as I was more than 3Km from a town's high street. I can say with confidence that the shift from 4G/LTE to 5G where I live now in British Columbia (Canada) mountains is not fun. It's significantly less reliable. I understand that its 10x faster, but I'd much prefer reliable over…
1G/2G/3G all need to have a dedicated channel for itself. They were usually given the frequencies with the longest range, which is the 800MHz band. When 4G was introduced it couldn't share that band with 3G, so it was usually given space on higher frequencies around 1800MHz and 2500MHz. Those bands also allow a higher data rate, and anyone out of their range could fall back to 3G so it's a win-win, right?
Buuuuut now we're stuck with 4G in a band with poor reception, and throwing out 3G means losing coverage. Ideally the 4G sites in low-density areas would be moved to 800MHz, but that's going to require significant effort because every single antenna will need to be modified by engineers. Had 4G been deployed to 800MHz initially this wouldn't have been an issue - but that wasn't really possible because it would've meant worse speeds for existing 3G customers.
This whole issue is avoided with 5G because 4G and 5G were explicitly designed to coexist on the same channel.
> Furthermore, the study also reveals 21% of those with a 3G handset aren’t willing to upgrade, and will simply continue to use their phone without internet connectivity. My bet would be that these are mostly devices given to children to watch Youtube and what-not. > However, calls and texts will continue to work despite the 3G switch off, as 2G won’t be fully switched off until 2033 the latest. This is because 2G is…