5G. What’s the point?

Author
Discussion

Johnspex

4,332 posts

183 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
Starjet99 said:
I'd really rather "they" concentrate on getting better 4G coverage before we worry too much about 5G. I live in the countryside (albeit in the south east, so not completely in the sticks) and I frequently don't get a 4G connection out and about, and I struggle with getting even 3G or any connection at all at home!
You should try living in North Devon.
Mobile signal is non-existent in many places round here.


irocfan

40,153 posts

189 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
Glade said:
... am sure I read that the version we get in the UK to start with wont be the full speed version or at least not what 5G will be able to achieve in the future. Certainly if you buy a handset now it wont be giving you the full beans.
so we'll be hamstrung by being early adopters, again! (in car DAB being a good example of being screwed for being an early adopter IIRC)

Fishlegs

2,981 posts

138 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
schmalex said:
Folks. Please help me. What on Earth is the practical point of 5G for use in every day life? Why would I want to pay more for 5G than I currently do for 3G / 4G?
schmalex some years ago said:
Folks. Please help me. What on Earth is the practical point of 4G for use in every day life? Why would I want to pay more for 4G than I currently do for 3G?
schmalex some more years ago said:
Folks. Please help me. What on Earth is the practical point of 3G for use in every day life? Why would I want to pay more for 3G than I currently do for 2G?
Does that help?

schmalex

Original Poster:

13,616 posts

205 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
Not really. I see the use of 4G as I can watch HDTV (probably the most bandwidth hungry application) on my mobile devices. I couldn’t do this on 3G / WAP so there is tangible benefit of 4G when it’s available

mouseymousey

2,641 posts

236 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
As has already been stated there are a number of industrial use cases for it, and in medicine and gaming.

The 2 things that I'm most interested in is that the fact that the base stations can communicate with each other and hand your connection between them. This will enable better user experience when travelling on a train for example.

Secondly, the destiny that the stations can handle. Big gatherings at stadiums, festivals etc should get a better more reliable connection.

It will take a long time to roll out to see those benefits though.

boyse7en

6,671 posts

164 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
Johnspex said:
Starjet99 said:
I'd really rather "they" concentrate on getting better 4G coverage before we worry too much about 5G. I live in the countryside (albeit in the south east, so not completely in the sticks) and I frequently don't get a 4G connection out and about, and I struggle with getting even 3G or any connection at all at home!
You should try living in North Devon.
Mobile signal is non-existent in many places round here.
I do live in North Devon and the amount of places I can go and it is Emergency Calls Only, or not even that, is amazing. Friends in the rest of the country don't believe me when I way I didn't get a message because I was out of signal for a whole afternoon or evening - the concept of not having 3G or 4G constantly baffles them.

5G will be even worse with it relatively short range. The chances of any supplier providing antennae throughout remotely populated areas is pretty much zero

JustALooseScrew

1,154 posts

66 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
sparks_190e said:
5g could replace broadband I've heard. It is really bloody quick.
I'm in SW London and have 2 bars on my phone. I have 1 bar in my gf's flat in SW London. Will this affect 5G speeds?
You have a girlfriend who seems happy to live with your one bar.
Hopefully you shouldn't need 5G at all.

hehe

bloomen

6,854 posts

158 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
boyse7en said:
5G will be even worse with it relatively short range. The chances of any supplier providing antennae throughout remotely populated areas is pretty much zero
Sub 6GHz 5G goes much further but it's slower and has less capacity. That's what the sticks will have if they can be bothered to install it.

I'm in the SW too and the idea of streaming music, or anything, when out and about is flat out laughable. You can't even do it on the prime rail and road routes with 3 or 4g.

These people whose lives operate in the cloud may as well be a different species.

talksthetorque

10,815 posts

134 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
mouseymousey said:
As has already been stated there are a number of industrial use cases for it, and in medicine and gaming.

The 2 things that I'm most interested in is that the fact that the base stations can communicate with each other and hand your connection between them. This will enable better user experience when travelling on a train for example.

Secondly, the destiny that the stations can handle. Big gatherings at stadiums, festivals etc should get a better more reliable connection.

It will take a long time to roll out to see those benefits though.
Handover between cells has been a thing since 2G, not sure about Analogue, even though I used to test the 883 base stations in the factory back when I still had hair.

The need for better handing over becomes more prevalent the smaller the cells.

Trains are big metal tubes that travel through the middle of nowhere, it's not surprising you lose signal, but I doubt that is handover.

nute

689 posts

106 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
boyse7en said:
I do live in North Devon and the amount of places I can go and it is Emergency Calls Only, or not even that, is amazing. Friends in the rest of the country don't believe me when I way I didn't get a message because I was out of signal for a whole afternoon or evening - the concept of not having 3G or 4G constantly baffles them.

5G will be even worse with it relatively short range. The chances of any supplier providing antennae throughout remotely populated areas is pretty much zero
Yeah, we are pushing ahead with super fast mobile for some areas when large rural areas can’t even get a mobile signal at all. As usual it will be driven by £, providers will roll it out where they can make money off of it, other places can continue to languish in the Stone Age.

wiggy001

6,542 posts

270 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
schmalex said:
Not really. I see the use of 4G as I can watch HDTV (probably the most bandwidth hungry application at the moment) on my mobile devices. I couldn’t do this on 3G / WAP so there is tangible benefit of 4G when it’s available

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
schmalex said:
Not really. I see the use of 4G as I can watch HDTV (probably the most bandwidth hungry application) on my mobile devices. I couldn’t do this on 3G / WAP so there is tangible benefit of 4G when it’s available
Did you know you wanted to do this back then?

I have about 10Mb/s on my broadband. Which is rubbish, but enough for Netflix, Prime, streaming music, etc. When all I had was dialup, it was fast enough for everything dialup was fast enough for, which was all I wanted to do because it was as there was.

If you add bandwidth, people will come up with ways of taking advantage of it.

Sheepshanks

32,530 posts

118 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
otolith said:
If you add bandwidth, people will come up with ways of taking advantage of it.
Holographic working from home.

GOATever

2,651 posts

66 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
Bandwidth. Plus it will keep me in a job for another 20 years, should I wish to continue working for that long.

schmalex

Original Poster:

13,616 posts

205 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
otolith said:
schmalex said:
Not really. I see the use of 4G as I can watch HDTV (probably the most bandwidth hungry application) on my mobile devices. I couldn’t do this on 3G / WAP so there is tangible benefit of 4G when it’s available
Did you know you wanted to do this back then?

.
Yes I kept getting pissed off as TV kept buffering. There is nothing now that I can’t do due to bandwidth restrictions

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
schmalex said:
otolith said:
schmalex said:
Not really. I see the use of 4G as I can watch HDTV (probably the most bandwidth hungry application) on my mobile devices. I couldn’t do this on 3G / WAP so there is tangible benefit of 4G when it’s available
Did you know you wanted to do this back then?

.
Yes I kept getting pissed off as TV kept buffering. There is nothing now that I can’t do due to bandwidth restrictions
I must admit, back when 3G was launched and WAP was still a thing, I didn't have an HD TV let alone an HD phone, so I didn't have much of a worry about it.

Johnspex

4,332 posts

183 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
boyse7en said:
Johnspex said:
Starjet99 said:
I'd really rather "they" concentrate on getting better 4G coverage before we worry too much about 5G. I live in the countryside (albeit in the south east, so not completely in the sticks) and I frequently don't get a 4G connection out and about, and I struggle with getting even 3G or any connection at all at home!
You should try living in North Devon.
Mobile signal is non-existent in many places round here.
I do live in North Devon and the amount of places I can go and it is Emergency Calls Only, or not even that, is amazing. Friends in the rest of the country don't believe me when I way I didn't get a message because I was out of signal for a whole afternoon or evening - the concept of not having 3G or 4G constantly baffles them.

5G will be even worse with it relatively short range. The chances of any supplier providing antennae throughout remotely populated areas is pretty much zero
They can put one up in my garden if it will give us a signal.
Just off the A39 between Bideford and Hartland.

Johnspex

4,332 posts

183 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
boyse7en said:
Johnspex said:
Starjet99 said:
I'd really rather "they" concentrate on getting better 4G coverage before we worry too much about 5G. I live in the countryside (albeit in the south east, so not completely in the sticks) and I frequently don't get a 4G connection out and about, and I struggle with getting even 3G or any connection at all at home!
You should try living in North Devon.
Mobile signal is non-existent in many places round here.
I do live in North Devon and the amount of places I can go and it is Emergency Calls Only, or not even that, is amazing. Friends in the rest of the country don't believe me when I way I didn't get a message because I was out of signal for a whole afternoon or evening - the concept of not having 3G or 4G constantly baffles them.

5G will be even worse with it relatively short range. The chances of any supplier providing antennae throughout remotely populated areas is pretty much zero
They can put one up in my garden if it will give us a signal.
Just off the A39 between Bideford and Hartland.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
They keep on pushing 5g as it allows more connections in concerts...
Not much use, a couple of hours a year & most ban phones now anyway !

surveyor

17,768 posts

183 months

Thursday 20th February 2020
quotequote all
Johnspex said:
boyse7en said:
Johnspex said:
Starjet99 said:
I'd really rather "they" concentrate on getting better 4G coverage before we worry too much about 5G. I live in the countryside (albeit in the south east, so not completely in the sticks) and I frequently don't get a 4G connection out and about, and I struggle with getting even 3G or any connection at all at home!
You should try living in North Devon.
Mobile signal is non-existent in many places round here.
I do live in North Devon and the amount of places I can go and it is Emergency Calls Only, or not even that, is amazing. Friends in the rest of the country don't believe me when I way I didn't get a message because I was out of signal for a whole afternoon or evening - the concept of not having 3G or 4G constantly baffles them.

5G will be even worse with it relatively short range. The chances of any supplier providing antennae throughout remotely populated areas is pretty much zero
They can put one up in my garden if it will give us a signal.
Just off the A39 between Bideford and Hartland.
How much rent would you want?