2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset • Hacker News Board

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#81

Post by HPsquared » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:35 AM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #29

richjdsmith wrote: post #9

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…

5G (and 4G before it) has more spectrum allocated at higher and lower frequencies. If your carrier has licenses for low frequency and deploys it, it should help a bit with coverage.

The 800 MHz band helps a lot to increase coverage, I think. Used to carry analogue TV signals.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#82

Post by mmsc » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:36 AM UTC

Longhanks wrote: post #19

thorum wrote: post #11

> 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. Seems reasonable. Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

Imagine if Apple or Google were retroactively removing a feature. The shitstorm would be outrageous. Where I'm from, the same discussion appears every two years, when the government tries once more to shutdown FM radio. Luckily, they always get shut down by the people. Maybe don't try to shut down public services that millions of people actually rely on.

Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft also regularly remove features from their consoles retroactively. You buy a subscription for access to them - and telecom networks - not the right to use them forever

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#83

Post by zelphirkalt » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:36 AM UTC

It is kind sad and funny at the same time, that in Germany I run around with 3G in major cities, which I have had in China in the middle of nowhere in probably better quality, 5 years ago.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#84

Post by ErneX » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:37 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #76

mathieuh wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Doesn't Spotify buffer? A few seconds of dropout is fine for playing songs where you can easily buffer a minute or two of data; not so good for a phonecall which ends within those same few seconds without an active connection.

It also caches whole songs.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#85

Post by alkonaut » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:38 AM UTC

1oooqooq wrote: post #2

a yes, the great tech-poor divide nobody cares when talking about digital central bank currencies or digital government etc.

I think the solution in all these cases isn't to make sure that everything works without id, without smartphone, with cash etc. It's to ensure everyone has access to technology, id, banks and so on.

Like voting. Yes it's a democracy problem if you have historically made it difficult or less likely for some groups to have ID, to suddenly require it. But it's not a democratic problem to require ID after first ensuring everyone has free and easy access to ID, and actually have the ID.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#86

Post by ErneX » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:42 AM UTC

wkat4242 wrote: post #51

pajko wrote: post #12

3G has been recently switched off in the most (or all by now?) part of Hungary. I have thought that the bands get reused for 4G, but no change so far. Probably the remaining 2G occupies the same bands or whatever. Or they have gone with 5G, while all the providers banish prepaid users from using 5G, so thanks for nothing. Anyway, the biggest downside is that where the 4G coverage sucks, I'm seeing the nightmarish EDG…

Yeah here in Spain too, still can't get 5G on prepay. It's not like it's new anymore.. Pretty annoying. I really don't want a contract.

simyo supposedly will have prepaid 5G by the end of this month.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#87

Post by pbhjpbhj » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:46 AM UTC

wcoenen wrote: post #49

Longhanks wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if Apple or Google were retroactively removing a feature. The shitstorm would be outrageous. Where I'm from, the same discussion appears every two years, when the government tries once more to shutdown FM radio. Luckily, they always get shut down by the people. Maybe don't try to shut down public services that millions of people actually rely on.

> Imagine if Apple or Google were retroactively removing a feature. The shitstorm would be outrageous. Is this sarcasm? Just in case it is not: https://killedby.tech/google/

Are any of those examples of removing a feature from a hardware device, which to me seemed to be the point of the parent. They're comparing car entertainment/GPS systems with phones.

Maybe 12 years ago, I had a device with sideloading that allowed me to run Plex (genuinely used for photo viewing). NowTV removed side-loading via a forced update and thus removed the principle reason I bought that device rather than another. Bought a FireTV stick after that and downloaded Plex from their appstore.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#88

Post by MilaM » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:47 AM UTC

zelphirkalt wrote: post #83

It is kind sad and funny at the same time, that in Germany I run around with 3G in major cities, which I have had in China in the middle of nowhere in probably better quality, 5 years ago.

All three networks have disabled 3G access in 2021, as far as I know.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#89

Post by Vinnl » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:50 AM UTC

ffgjgf1 wrote: post #77

bArray wrote: post #75

> 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…

Are there that many smartphones that are actually capable of running YT and have a access to a version of Android/iOS that’s still supported and are 4g only? 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?

I think it's been fairly clear that people don't limit themselves to OS's that are still supported, and if you remove that condition from your question, I think the answer would be "yes".

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#90

Post by neilalexander » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 9:56 AM UTC

hkt wrote: post #10

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.

Usually I would agree with you on the mandatory obsolescence thing but useful radio spectrum is a finite resource and the newer technologies are far more efficient both with spectrum utilisation and with power consumed. This is one of those cases where moving forward just makes sense.