Mobile 5G coverage v 4G question

[981Boxess]

Doubt it makes a lot of difference but we are with EE and both our mobiles are only on 4G.

Our problem is mobile reception at home is virtually nil until we get away from the house, WiFi calling saving the day but would rather have a mobile that actually works without WiFi.

So my question is when you have a 5G mobile does it work in the same areas as 4G or is it a different coverage area wise completely. In other words if I had a 5G mobile instead of 4G one is it possible it would actually work at home where 4G doesn't?

Obviously I appreciate nothing is guaranteed but if the area covered by 5G is different to 4G it may solve my problem.

Many thanks in advance for any input.

[Griffith4ever]

Generally, there is only 5g coverage where there is/was good 4g coverage already.

Generally.

[Tye Green]

not sure about phone calls but if you're using a 5g enabled phone for downloading data from the web within an area served by a 5g mast, you still need a 4g signal for upload.

[illmonkey]

Rather than doing something sensible like rolling out 4G (or even 3G) EVERYWHERE, they keep topping up the heavily populated places, you know, the ones with cafes, pubs and public wifi with 5G so you can have many services to choose from. Which leaves you in the dark ages if you're more than 3meters from a town centre.

Devices are backwards compatible, so a 5G device will work on all the G's, but its highly unlikely you'll get 5G where you'd not get 4G or 3G.

[colin79666]

Not sure about EE specifically but much of the 5g so far in the UK isn’t really stand alone 5g (really 4g+) and is using the higher frequencies so doesn’t penetrate into buildings very well.

[FMOB]

Tye Green said:

not sure about phone calls but if you're using a 5g enabled phone for downloading data from the web within an area served by a 5g mast, you still need a 4g signal for upload.

You are describing the Non-Stand Alone 5G architecture wherr 4G is used for the initial setup before switching over to 5G. The networks are migrating to the Stand-Alone 5G architecture where a 4G signal is not required not that you can really tell the difference.

[Tomo1971]

EE use a couple of bands for 5G - 700MHz (Band 28), 1800MHz (Band 3), 2100MHz (Band 1), 2600MHz (Band 7) and 3500MHz, 3600MHz (NR Band 78).

EE 4G uses - G 800MHz (Band 20), 1800MHz (Band 3), 2100MHz (Band 1), 2600MHz (Band 7)

There is a chance that the serving cell has 5g (700) on it and not 4g (800) so has the potential to give better coverage