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I guess... but like, that's what Wi-Fi AX is supposed to cater to. Apart from voice traffic, which isn't extreme, it's hard to imagine why cellular (which is ca

I guess... but like, that's what Wi-Fi AX is supposed to cater to. Apart from voice traffic, which isn't extreme, it's hard to imagine why cellular (which is carrier-specific) would be preferred over Wi-Fi deployment. If the cell towers are in the facility, they need to provide the fiber backhaul either way.

reaperducer 6y ago
Doesn't 5G have the ability to be carrier agnostic, so that multiple carriers can be on the same antennae? Or am I sniffing glue again?
- cogman10 6y ago
  Nope, carriers buy broadcasting bands. Phones are designed to be able to take in and process the various frequencies that all the carriers use. Whenever there is a bandwidth auction, you'll have the potential of your phones not having access to your new network's bands. How we've been handling this is that new purchases often go to newer tech. However, there has been some cannibalism of really old bands (For example, taking a 2g band and turning it into a 5g band). That happens per carrier.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    3G is already in the process of being shut down. Which makes it a little annoying how long they kept making phones that had 4G support but still depended on 3G for calls. Still, it seems like we're on track to get those bands reclaimed at a significantly better pace than 2G.
cogman10 6y ago
The major difference is that for wifi, you need to setup your connection to whatever wifi network is provided. With your cell data service, that happens automatically for you. You don't need to go in and explicitly join some guest network and sign their ToS. Maybe if there was some "cell->wifi" standard that could happen, but I'm somewhat doubtful about the benefits there. You'd also have to be super careful, for the same reason you wouldn't really want to join a random open network.
- lttlrck 6y ago
  LTE WiFi offload takes care of securely transiting voice over untrusted networks (like your home network) to the telcos core network using IPSec.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  5G has a bunch of frequencies in the same range as wifi, too. They can handle a good chunk of density.
- seraphsf 6y ago
  The WiFi industry is working on a new "cell->wifi" standard called OpenRoaming. Pixel phones turned on OpenRoaming support with Android 11.

reaperducer 6y ago

Doesn't 5G have the ability to be carrier agnostic, so that multiple carriers can be on the same antennae? Or am I sniffing glue again?

cogman10 6y ago
Nope, carriers buy broadcasting bands. Phones are designed to be able to take in and process the various frequencies that all the carriers use. Whenever there is a bandwidth auction, you'll have the potential of your phones not having access to your new network's bands. How we've been handling this is that new purchases often go to newer tech. However, there has been some cannibalism of really old bands (For example, taking a 2g band and turning it into a 5g band). That happens per carrier.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  3G is already in the process of being shut down. Which makes it a little annoying how long they kept making phones that had 4G support but still depended on 3G for calls. Still, it seems like we're on track to get those bands reclaimed at a significantly better pace than 2G.

cogman10 6y ago

The major difference is that for wifi, you need to setup your connection to whatever wifi network is provided. With your cell data service, that happens automatically for you. You don't need to go in and explicitly join some guest network and sign their ToS. Maybe if there was some "cell->wifi" standard that could happen, but I'm somewhat doubtful about the benefits there. You'd also have to be super careful, for the same reason you wouldn't really want to join a random open network.

lttlrck 6y ago
LTE WiFi offload takes care of securely transiting voice over untrusted networks (like your home network) to the telcos core network using IPSec.
Dylan16807 6y ago
5G has a bunch of frequencies in the same range as wifi, too. They can handle a good chunk of density.
seraphsf 6y ago
The WiFi industry is working on a new "cell->wifi" standard called OpenRoaming. Pixel phones turned on OpenRoaming support with Android 11.