6 ms·

It's almost like we could just go back to cables and have a plenty good experience again...

guhidalg 4y ago
But why? If you had the choice of EQUIVALENT (bandwidth, latency, jitter, reliability, etc…) network connectivity, why pick a wire over wireless?
- gmokki 4y ago
  Wireless consumes more energy. So it is more enironmentally friendly to go with wires, especially fiber. Personally I like to have both, wired main connection and wireless as backup.
  - mattmaroon 4y ago
    Is it though? What’s the environmental footprint of manufacturing, installing, and maintaining all of those wires?
    - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
      A lot lower than manufacturing chips to do the complex signal processing needed for fast and reliable wireless.
    - mynameisvlad 4y ago
      While not as much, installing and maintaining the 5G endpoints also requires all that, and they generally have to be wired to achieve low latency, meshing only does so much and the speed of light is going to win out for backhauls.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  If it costs more, I wouldn't pick wireless. Losing the wire for my home internet gains me nothing.
- jmopp 4y ago
  I don't trust that the wireless solution would be equivalent, though this may be because I've been burned too many times living in concrete houses that block cellphone signal rather effectively.
- pshc 4y ago
  It isn’t equivalent. Optical fiber beats 5G on those criteria.
- rocqua 4y ago
  Wireless is inherently easier to accidentally get disrupted. When wired internet fails, it is rarely the wire. More importantly, if it is the wire that is easy to check and fix. With wireless internet, disruption can be caused by many things. That makes diagnosing a problem so much harder. Incidentally it also tends to be less reliable. Besides that, the massive complexity of the technology stack makes wireless harder to manage, configure, figure out compatibility for, and more prone to software bugs.
  - HPsquared 4y ago
    Wireless does has an advantage in terms of redundancy. If the nearest tower fails, you can probably also use another one nearby. Not so with wired connections, where the whole signal chain needs to be intact. Even if the whole network fails, you can probably switch SIM and use a different network.
    - headsoup 4y ago
      I suppose you don't live rurally... But they both have trade-offs. Wireless allows many connections at once rather easily at the cost of interference and (potentially) speed and reliability, cable is more expensive up front if infrastructure isn't already there.
    - renonce 4y ago
      You can have such redundancy for wire too. People simply figured out that it’s so reliable there is no need for extra redundancy.
- thefz 4y ago
  Wireless should be the exception, not the norm. When you really need a device to move.
- headsoup 4y ago
  Well I could make that assumption... and make the whole conversation pointless.
- nerdbert 4y ago
  I would hate to have all the devices in my house connect directly to a wireless signal from the ISP, for example. I manage the DNS and firewall to control what goes on. Giving up that control means more ads and more tracking and nothing good for me. Having fiber come into the house has no drawbacks that I can see, so why trade that away for something worse?

But why? If you had the choice of EQUIVALENT (bandwidth, latency, jitter, reliability, etc…) network connectivity, why pick a wire over wireless?

gmokki 4y ago
Wireless consumes more energy. So it is more enironmentally friendly to go with wires, especially fiber. Personally I like to have both, wired main connection and wireless as backup.
- mattmaroon 4y ago
  Is it though? What’s the environmental footprint of manufacturing, installing, and maintaining all of those wires?
  - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
    A lot lower than manufacturing chips to do the complex signal processing needed for fast and reliable wireless.
  - mynameisvlad 4y ago
    While not as much, installing and maintaining the 5G endpoints also requires all that, and they generally have to be wired to achieve low latency, meshing only does so much and the speed of light is going to win out for backhauls.
JohnFen 4y ago
If it costs more, I wouldn't pick wireless. Losing the wire for my home internet gains me nothing.
jmopp 4y ago
I don't trust that the wireless solution would be equivalent, though this may be because I've been burned too many times living in concrete houses that block cellphone signal rather effectively.
pshc 4y ago
It isn’t equivalent. Optical fiber beats 5G on those criteria.
rocqua 4y ago
Wireless is inherently easier to accidentally get disrupted. When wired internet fails, it is rarely the wire. More importantly, if it is the wire that is easy to check and fix. With wireless internet, disruption can be caused by many things. That makes diagnosing a problem so much harder. Incidentally it also tends to be less reliable. Besides that, the massive complexity of the technology stack makes wireless harder to manage, configure, figure out compatibility for, and more prone to software bugs.
- HPsquared 4y ago
  Wireless does has an advantage in terms of redundancy. If the nearest tower fails, you can probably also use another one nearby. Not so with wired connections, where the whole signal chain needs to be intact. Even if the whole network fails, you can probably switch SIM and use a different network.
  - headsoup 4y ago
    I suppose you don't live rurally... But they both have trade-offs. Wireless allows many connections at once rather easily at the cost of interference and (potentially) speed and reliability, cable is more expensive up front if infrastructure isn't already there.
  - renonce 4y ago
    You can have such redundancy for wire too. People simply figured out that it’s so reliable there is no need for extra redundancy.
thefz 4y ago
Wireless should be the exception, not the norm. When you really need a device to move.
headsoup 4y ago
Well I could make that assumption... and make the whole conversation pointless.
nerdbert 4y ago
I would hate to have all the devices in my house connect directly to a wireless signal from the ISP, for example. I manage the DNS and firewall to control what goes on. Giving up that control means more ads and more tracking and nothing good for me. Having fiber come into the house has no drawbacks that I can see, so why trade that away for something worse?