5 ms·

Can someone explain to me what the user benefit of 5G is? Is there anything that people typically do on their phones/with tethering right now that LTE is insuf

Can someone explain to me what the user benefit of 5G is? Is there anything that people typically do on their phones/with tethering right now that LTE is insufficient bandwidth for? Or is this just a plan by the carriers to encourage more really expensive usage, like convincing people to stream on their phones/tether all the time?

thomspoon 6y ago
Lower latency, easier to place cells in public places due to a broader range of frequencies, better bandwidth. The lower latency part is what’s going to enable edge computing for AR/VR, autonomous driving (separate via V2V but related), and other functions that need low latency. Cell phones are just a bonus. Also, a lot of telecoms are kind of ignoring 4g/lte deadspots in favor of just putting new NSA 5G cells it seems. I’m excited, but I’m also biased because I work in the industry.
- PhantomGremlin 6y ago
  a lot of telecoms are kind of ignoring 4g/lte deadspots in favor of just putting new NSA 5G cells That just emphasizes what marketing bullshit 5G is. Telecoms won't properly build out infrastructure to avoid LTE deadspots, and yet are pushing 5G. But ... people say that proper 5G needs many many more cells than LTE!
  - ac29 6y ago
    > Telecoms won't properly build out infrastructure to avoid LTE deadspots, and yet are pushing 5G Its not entirely irrational - if your customers spend 99% of their time in some given area, it could make sense to improve capacity in those areas instead of chasing that last 1% of coverage.
    - baby 6y ago
      This is why this industry should be nationalized
  - Rebelgecko 6y ago
    The 5g signal I get at home is only through T-Mobile's lower bands, which are apparently slower than 4G. It's a bit silly
- mnm1 6y ago
  > Also, a lot of telecoms are kind of ignoring 4g/lte deadspots in favor of just putting new NSA 5G cells it seems. I’m excited, but I’m also biased because I work in the industry. T-Mobile has actively reduced coverage these last few years where I live. Went from having almost full bars to almost nothing and calls never being put through and dropping. Just a mile or two from at least three different towers. Even with their lte hotspot placed inside my house, their network doesn't work well. I see commercials about 5g and I think, how about implementing 1g first and getting basic phone service before pretending to deploy some bullshit 5g that likely won't be around for years and no one gives a fuck about? Anyway, I have no delusions about fixing this. Unfortunately Verizon is cdma so the only real competitor is att. Tried Google fi but it wasn't great and Comcast can go fuck themselves. So either I switch to a carrier that is more expensive and likely just as bad or I stay with the shit service because the telecom idiots decided to downgrade their network ten miles outside one of the biggest cities on the west coast. You'll have to excuse me for being skeptical about a technology pushed by telcos that in 2020 still can't get a basic cellphone voice call to connect or text messages to send reliably even with an lte hotspot literally inches away from a phone they claim 100% support for.
PhantomGremlin 6y ago
I think it's just marketing bullshit. More "G's" have to be better. so 5 "G's" are clearly better than 4. It's kinda like that great scene in the movie This is Spinal Tap. The amp "numbers all go to eleven". When pressed, the obvious advantage is "These go to eleven". The average person couldn't explain what either LTE or 5G are. I just ran a Speedtest on my phone and with a relatively weak signal I'm getting 10 Mbps download via LTE. Isn't that good enough for the latest cat GIF? I think the industry wants 5G to deal with improved cell service in densely occupied places such as football stadiums. Well, that obviously won't be a priority for the next few years!
jpeeler 6y ago
Forgive me, but this sounds like the same perspective of the famous quote "640K is more memory than anyone will ever need on a computer" (no idea if Gates actually said it). People will always fill the bandwidth with something (just like memory), perhaps with something we don't even use today at all. Though note that the new usage pattern will only emerge after usage is ubiquitous, which is usually due to decent pricing.
- waheoo 6y ago
  Its also an American centric view. Travelling around Korea and back home I noticed the distinct difference in consumption habbits. Korea data isn't capped, so everyone streams news/twitch/YouTube while on there commute. Back home, everyone reads articles and spam scrolls static images on instagram. So "do people need bandwidth" no. Will they use it if they have it? Absolutely.
  - arvinsim 6y ago
    Yeah, access to cheap fast bandwidth certainly changed my internet habits when I was in countries like Singapore and Taiwan.
    - waheoo 6y ago
      This what annoys me so much about politicians getting in the way of fast access internet due to their narrow minded view of the world where internet is for email and google. Expanding our capabilities always has unknown unknown benefits just around the corner.
- tialaramex 6y ago
  FWIW Gates never said that. There's no documentary evidence anywhere, it just shows up with no source as a claimed Gates quote years after the last point it could plausibly have been said. And the supposed ubiquity argument for more network bandwidth is stale. People have been making this argument for decades at this point, it's roughly the same age as "When everybody with a mobile phone gets cancer you'll see" arguments. Any time you think you see an exponential curve stretch off to infinity it just means you zoomed in too far. 16kbps was much too slow, and 16Mbps still feels a little cramped although everything works, but it turns out you have no real use for 16Gbps, even if most people you know have it too. I believe a lot of people got the wrong idea because for them two things came along together - they got more bandwidth and Always On access together, typically as DSL or a Cable Modem. I happen to have received them separately over time, partly a quirk of fate and partly because it had been very important to me to get access to the network long before most people knew it existed. Always On makes a huge qualitative difference. Broadband not so much. A household with Always On at 56kbps is very different from a traditional "dial-up" at 56kbps, in a way that one with 100Mbps vDSL isn't so different from one with 1Mbps ADSL or 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home. It changes how you think about using the Network, because it's always there.
ThatPlayer 6y ago
In populated areas, the increased bandwidth of 5G means more to go around. Ever been in a really crowded area like an airport or a convention center? Data slows to a crawl.
SimeVidas 6y ago
Maybe streaming video games (Stadia)?
- jonny_eh 6y ago
  and Geforce Now, Xbox Streaming, Playstation Now, and Shadow. It's a fast growing area, and the main reason why I'd go for the 5G upgrade at some point.
charlesju 6y ago
One use of 5g would be better streaming upload speed, that can open up a lot of interesting use cases. Another use case is streaming + AR, I can see that becoming crazy bandwidth intensive. I think there can be some cool games if we can get high mobile bandwidth and a cleaner AR (ie. Apple glasses) experience medium. I also think if you're asking from the perspective of why would the 4a but $350 but 4a-5g be $500, then I'd guess that the 4a-5g is going to come with more than just 5g capabilities.

thomspoon 6y ago

Lower latency, easier to place cells in public places due to a broader range of frequencies, better bandwidth. The lower latency part is what’s going to enable edge computing for AR/VR, autonomous driving (separate via V2V but related), and other functions that need low latency. Cell phones are just a bonus. Also, a lot of telecoms are kind of ignoring 4g/lte deadspots in favor of just putting new NSA 5G cells it seems. I’m excited, but I’m also biased because I work in the industry.

PhantomGremlin 6y ago
a lot of telecoms are kind of ignoring 4g/lte deadspots in favor of just putting new NSA 5G cells That just emphasizes what marketing bullshit 5G is. Telecoms won't properly build out infrastructure to avoid LTE deadspots, and yet are pushing 5G. But ... people say that proper 5G needs many many more cells than LTE!
- ac29 6y ago
  > Telecoms won't properly build out infrastructure to avoid LTE deadspots, and yet are pushing 5G Its not entirely irrational - if your customers spend 99% of their time in some given area, it could make sense to improve capacity in those areas instead of chasing that last 1% of coverage.
  - baby 6y ago
    This is why this industry should be nationalized
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  The 5g signal I get at home is only through T-Mobile's lower bands, which are apparently slower than 4G. It's a bit silly
mnm1 6y ago
> Also, a lot of telecoms are kind of ignoring 4g/lte deadspots in favor of just putting new NSA 5G cells it seems. I’m excited, but I’m also biased because I work in the industry. T-Mobile has actively reduced coverage these last few years where I live. Went from having almost full bars to almost nothing and calls never being put through and dropping. Just a mile or two from at least three different towers. Even with their lte hotspot placed inside my house, their network doesn't work well. I see commercials about 5g and I think, how about implementing 1g first and getting basic phone service before pretending to deploy some bullshit 5g that likely won't be around for years and no one gives a fuck about? Anyway, I have no delusions about fixing this. Unfortunately Verizon is cdma so the only real competitor is att. Tried Google fi but it wasn't great and Comcast can go fuck themselves. So either I switch to a carrier that is more expensive and likely just as bad or I stay with the shit service because the telecom idiots decided to downgrade their network ten miles outside one of the biggest cities on the west coast. You'll have to excuse me for being skeptical about a technology pushed by telcos that in 2020 still can't get a basic cellphone voice call to connect or text messages to send reliably even with an lte hotspot literally inches away from a phone they claim 100% support for.

PhantomGremlin 6y ago

I think it's just marketing bullshit. More "G's" have to be better. so 5 "G's" are clearly better than 4. It's kinda like that great scene in the movie This is Spinal Tap. The amp "numbers all go to eleven". When pressed, the obvious advantage is "These go to eleven". The average person couldn't explain what either LTE or 5G are. I just ran a Speedtest on my phone and with a relatively weak signal I'm getting 10 Mbps download via LTE. Isn't that good enough for the latest cat GIF? I think the industry wants 5G to deal with improved cell service in densely occupied places such as football stadiums. Well, that obviously won't be a priority for the next few years!

jpeeler 6y ago

Forgive me, but this sounds like the same perspective of the famous quote "640K is more memory than anyone will ever need on a computer" (no idea if Gates actually said it). People will always fill the bandwidth with something (just like memory), perhaps with something we don't even use today at all. Though note that the new usage pattern will only emerge after usage is ubiquitous, which is usually due to decent pricing.

waheoo 6y ago
Its also an American centric view. Travelling around Korea and back home I noticed the distinct difference in consumption habbits. Korea data isn't capped, so everyone streams news/twitch/YouTube while on there commute. Back home, everyone reads articles and spam scrolls static images on instagram. So "do people need bandwidth" no. Will they use it if they have it? Absolutely.
- arvinsim 6y ago
  Yeah, access to cheap fast bandwidth certainly changed my internet habits when I was in countries like Singapore and Taiwan.
  - waheoo 6y ago
    This what annoys me so much about politicians getting in the way of fast access internet due to their narrow minded view of the world where internet is for email and google. Expanding our capabilities always has unknown unknown benefits just around the corner.
tialaramex 6y ago
FWIW Gates never said that. There's no documentary evidence anywhere, it just shows up with no source as a claimed Gates quote years after the last point it could plausibly have been said. And the supposed ubiquity argument for more network bandwidth is stale. People have been making this argument for decades at this point, it's roughly the same age as "When everybody with a mobile phone gets cancer you'll see" arguments. Any time you think you see an exponential curve stretch off to infinity it just means you zoomed in too far. 16kbps was much too slow, and 16Mbps still feels a little cramped although everything works, but it turns out you have no real use for 16Gbps, even if most people you know have it too. I believe a lot of people got the wrong idea because for them two things came along together - they got more bandwidth and Always On access together, typically as DSL or a Cable Modem. I happen to have received them separately over time, partly a quirk of fate and partly because it had been very important to me to get access to the network long before most people knew it existed. Always On makes a huge qualitative difference. Broadband not so much. A household with Always On at 56kbps is very different from a traditional "dial-up" at 56kbps, in a way that one with 100Mbps vDSL isn't so different from one with 1Mbps ADSL or 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home. It changes how you think about using the Network, because it's always there.

ThatPlayer 6y ago

In populated areas, the increased bandwidth of 5G means more to go around. Ever been in a really crowded area like an airport or a convention center? Data slows to a crawl.

SimeVidas 6y ago

Maybe streaming video games (Stadia)?

jonny_eh 6y ago
and Geforce Now, Xbox Streaming, Playstation Now, and Shadow. It's a fast growing area, and the main reason why I'd go for the 5G upgrade at some point.

charlesju 6y ago

One use of 5g would be better streaming upload speed, that can open up a lot of interesting use cases. Another use case is streaming + AR, I can see that becoming crazy bandwidth intensive. I think there can be some cool games if we can get high mobile bandwidth and a cleaner AR (ie. Apple glasses) experience medium. I also think if you're asking from the perspective of why would the 4a but $350 but 4a-5g be $500, then I'd guess that the 4a-5g is going to come with more than just 5g capabilities.