4 ms·
5G is the next generation of mobile connectivity. I can't list all of the detailed changes off the top of my head, but some of the biggest changes I'm aware of
by laurowyn 6y ago
5G is the next generation of mobile connectivity. I can't list all of the detailed changes off the top of my head, but some of the biggest changes I'm aware of are;
The use of a different radio band, therefore less contention in the existing mobile bands - less congestion results in better speeds overall.
Reducing the range of base stations. shorter range means less clients, less congestion and therefore better speeds, whilst also deploying them more densely to cope with wider areas and higher bandwidth densities. Also, shorter range reduces the power requirements, meaning mobile devices will have longer battery life (nothing magical, probably not even noticeable to the average user), or it can be built into smaller/low power devices such as IoT.
Utimately, 5G is irrelevant to end users until it's actually deployed widely. Just like 3G and 4G, the end user has no impact on the deployment of the network other than the demand for it. So, all the hype around 5G is almost entirely marketing, politics etc. It only really matters once 5G is deployed across the areas you visit daily, and until then the previous generations of mobile connectivity will continue to serve just fine.
Your suggestion about a football stadium is an interesting test case. Ideally, an area that size would be served by up to a dozen base stations, spread throughout the stadium. Compare this with a single 3G base station that would cover the stadium, plus a large portion of the local area, and you can see the pros/cons fairly easily. But how many people are surfing the web whilst watching a game? or taking calls, answering texts etc. Very few during active play time, but there'll be large bursts of traffic in any breaks in play which will stress the older mobile generations to breaking point whereas 5G is designed to deal with that scenario fairly well.
- secondcoming 6y agoAll I know is that I get double the bandwidth when connected to a 5G network than their 4G one
- charrondev 6y agoSo now you can blow through your data cap twice as fast? To me the whole angle of this seems wrong. Who out there has a solid LTE signal and is going “oh if only this were faster”. On the other hand when I have 1 bar I might has well have nothing at all. Shortening the range of the base stations doesn’t seem like it would help this.
- ng55QPSK 6y agoBut keep in mind, that data caps exist to limit the impact of single users to the overall capacity. With 5G capacity everywhere, the will look different (way higher).
- reaperducer 6y agoThat's what they said about 4G, and 3G. We've seen this movie before.
- ng55QPSK 6y agoAnd your 4G cap is what you had with 3G?
- reaperducer 6y agoWhen 4G came online, yes it was.
- serf 6y ago>With 5G capacity everywhere, the will look different (way higher). In the US I went from unlimited data 3G to 10gb during the 4G LTE days, down to eventually 5gb (Verizon). There are many I know with the same personal experience. I have no doubt that big data plans will one day be ubiquitous -- but I have much more doubt that mobile providers are actually trying to provide me with a better experience and more freedom to do what I want. They care about profit, and that's about it. They gave away big data plans when few people cared about actually using them, and now that the phones and the userbase has caught up to those numbers the providers pull the rug from under them in order to secure further profits -- god forbid the user demand forces upgrades, that'd ruin the profits even further.
- kalleboo 6y agoYou can see this where I live - all the main carrier 5G data plans are unlimited data, whereas they never offered any unlimited LTE plans (the last time there was an unlimited plan was on the original WiMAX)
- fulafel 6y agoThe radio frequencies aren't necessarily different, but there are options for frequencies that weren't available in lte. The jury is still out about real world mm-wave 5g becoming widespread any time soon outside few exceptionally crowded public places. Besides network support, a lot of phones don't support it either.