3 ms·

If I am sending 100 bytes, then spectral efficiency is not my biggest problem. NB-IoT is fine, I will have to use it. The cost of 4G/5G chips is a lot higher t

If I am sending 100 bytes, then spectral efficiency is not my biggest problem. NB-IoT is fine, I will have to use it. The cost of 4G/5G chips is a lot higher than older generations, to say nothing of what would happen if anyone can make chips. Everyone just wants to sell me something new, because that's how they make money. When 3G came out all the telecoms were excited to sell video, as it would give higher average revenue per user. Turns out people don't want to pay more. We get faster networks but keep the same price per GB, so with 5G I will be able to blow through my monthly bandwidth in 60 seconds. And that assumes that the carriers have the backbone capacity.

ac29 7y ago
You don't need a full fledged 4G chip for NB-IoT - something like Quectel BC66 would work. Its ~€10/each for QTY250 [0], or €29 for QTY1 on a Arduino compatible dev board [1]. Ublox has a similar product for a similar price [2]. [0] https://www.avnet.com/shop/emea/products/quectel-wireless-solutions/bc66nb-04-std-3074457345635728059 https://www.avnet.com/shop/emea/products/quectel-wireless-so... [1] https://www.tekmodul.de/produkt/bc66-dvk/ https://www.tekmodul.de/produkt/bc66-dvk/ [2] https://www.u-blox.com/en/product/sara-r4-series https://www.u-blox.com/en/product/sara-r4-series
spookthesunset 7y ago
Spectral efficiency may not be an issue for you but it sure as hell is an issue for your carrier. What people are telling you is that 5G is more than just a plot to sell you YouTube streaming. It is the only way carriers can scale the mobile network to meet its growing needs. There are only so many ways you can cram more people into a shared medium like the RF spectrum....