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This exactly. mmWave is such an absurd expense for literally no return. I think it came out that basically they were forced to support it in order to otherwise

This exactly. mmWave is such an absurd expense for literally no return. I think it came out that basically they were forced to support it in order to otherwise be sold as a 5G device through Verizon, and that forced their hand. But $100 for a service that literally no one can use? Ridiculous. I can't understand the series of events that have transpired where literally anyone in the infrastructure and network and spectrum teams at VZW have been excited about mmWave and think it's a worthwhile investment. The limitations on the technology make it functionally worthless. Its performance suffers depending on your HAND position. It's about as dumb as trying to transmit data to a cell phone over IR and about as practical. It feels like they landed the spectrum and figured they could make some claims about insane speeds, and then the reality around its limitations set in and the core technology doesn't have any way to get around them. At the end of the day, mmWave, by its very nature, will not penetrate almost any surface. How anyone thought that meant it was a candidate for radio transmission on moving devices is completely beyond me.

deleted 6y ago
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kllrnohj 6y ago
Because it's one of the few things you can actually point at and be like "that's why you need a new phone!" Same reason why Apple was all about that 5G during the iPhone 12 announcement. Doesn't matter if it'll never be useful, all that matters is that the feature sheet lists it and a canned demo will show unreal speeds.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  5G in general is important. It means compatibility for the future, access to more towers, and access to more frequencies. So sure, you need mmwave to get gigabits per second, but 5G without mmwave still has a good amount to show off and make sales with.
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    In Europe we hardly have proper LTE and HSCSD support outside main cities, I couldn't care less about 5G.
    - Dylan16807 6y ago
      That depends entirely on what new towers are deployed with. If they keep trickling out LTE, then you can ignore 5G just fine. But if they leapfrog LTE and new deployments devote most of the frequencies to 5G, then you're probably going to want a 5G radio to have fewer gaps in coverage.

deleted 6y ago

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kllrnohj 6y ago

Because it's one of the few things you can actually point at and be like "that's why you need a new phone!" Same reason why Apple was all about that 5G during the iPhone 12 announcement. Doesn't matter if it'll never be useful, all that matters is that the feature sheet lists it and a canned demo will show unreal speeds.

Dylan16807 6y ago
5G in general is important. It means compatibility for the future, access to more towers, and access to more frequencies. So sure, you need mmwave to get gigabits per second, but 5G without mmwave still has a good amount to show off and make sales with.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  In Europe we hardly have proper LTE and HSCSD support outside main cities, I couldn't care less about 5G.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    That depends entirely on what new towers are deployed with. If they keep trickling out LTE, then you can ignore 5G just fine. But if they leapfrog LTE and new deployments devote most of the frequencies to 5G, then you're probably going to want a 5G radio to have fewer gaps in coverage.