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> Tokyo has five million Wi-Fi access points – and that's 20 times what the city needs, because they’re reserved for private use Unsure if you were trying to m

> Tokyo has five million Wi-Fi access points – and that's 20 times what the city needs, because they’re reserved for private use Unsure if you were trying to make a point to debate the article; but it appears they're specifically speaking of private networks, not public.

tecleandor 3y ago
I guess it's to reaffirm the article. I've also had a similar experience there on how weirdly difficult is to get WiFi access in Tokyo even if you try to pay for it, everything is tied to contracts with the main telcos.
moffkalast 3y ago
They don't exist in a vacuum, they all pollute the channels with noise. Public ones indubitably perform worse due to all the private ones.
- josephg 3y ago
  Its the same in all big cities. From my kitchen I can see 23 other access points in the list. I'm sure we could pool our internet & wifi if we could coordinate, but coordination is too hard. Given how saturated the spectrum is, its remarkable how reliable wifi has become. I get occasional dropouts (maybe once or twice a day for a few seconds) but otherwise my connection is rock solid. And this is all over 802.11ac - which is super old at this point.
  - creshal 3y ago
    > And this is all over 802.11ac - which is super old at this point. Most consumers never upgrade their router, and even if it fails, telcos often send them old and outdated replacements. There's a lot of networks around that are still stuck on older technologies.
    - sgerenser 3y ago
      True about never upgrading the router, but I really can’t imagine any cable/telco sending out anything older than 802.11ac at this point. Why would they, it’s just going to cause complaints about “you sold me 100mbit but I’m only getting 33 mbits [on my old 802.11n router]!”
      - creshal 3y ago
        Usually the reply is "we sold you 'up to' 100 mbits, on ethernet, sucks to be you" anyway. And the telcos are emptying their stockpile of old crap before they order slightly less outdated models from the lowest bidder.
  - jorvi 3y ago
    5GHz doesn’t have the collision problem of 2.4GHz because it weakly propagates through brick and concrete.
    - oefrha 3y ago
      It does have the problem of weakly propagating through brick and concrete within your own home. Without a mesh you end up with blind spots even in a medium-sized apartment.
    - nly 3y ago
      Isn't the difference marginal at best. I swear i read a debunk on this

tecleandor 3y ago

I guess it's to reaffirm the article. I've also had a similar experience there on how weirdly difficult is to get WiFi access in Tokyo even if you try to pay for it, everything is tied to contracts with the main telcos.

moffkalast 3y ago

They don't exist in a vacuum, they all pollute the channels with noise. Public ones indubitably perform worse due to all the private ones.

josephg 3y ago
Its the same in all big cities. From my kitchen I can see 23 other access points in the list. I'm sure we could pool our internet & wifi if we could coordinate, but coordination is too hard. Given how saturated the spectrum is, its remarkable how reliable wifi has become. I get occasional dropouts (maybe once or twice a day for a few seconds) but otherwise my connection is rock solid. And this is all over 802.11ac - which is super old at this point.
- creshal 3y ago
  > And this is all over 802.11ac - which is super old at this point. Most consumers never upgrade their router, and even if it fails, telcos often send them old and outdated replacements. There's a lot of networks around that are still stuck on older technologies.
  - sgerenser 3y ago
    True about never upgrading the router, but I really can’t imagine any cable/telco sending out anything older than 802.11ac at this point. Why would they, it’s just going to cause complaints about “you sold me 100mbit but I’m only getting 33 mbits [on my old 802.11n router]!”
    - creshal 3y ago
      Usually the reply is "we sold you 'up to' 100 mbits, on ethernet, sucks to be you" anyway. And the telcos are emptying their stockpile of old crap before they order slightly less outdated models from the lowest bidder.
- jorvi 3y ago
  5GHz doesn’t have the collision problem of 2.4GHz because it weakly propagates through brick and concrete.
  - oefrha 3y ago
    It does have the problem of weakly propagating through brick and concrete within your own home. Without a mesh you end up with blind spots even in a medium-sized apartment.
  - nly 3y ago
    Isn't the difference marginal at best. I swear i read a debunk on this