4 ms·

GSM dongles simply aren't that popular anymore. Wifi access is near-universal, so the average consumer will pretty much never be without internet access - and

by crote 4y ago

GSM dongles simply aren't that popular anymore. Wifi access is near-universal, so the average consumer will pretty much never be without internet access - and their phone is a pretty suitable backup hotspot. The people who do need GSM-based internet - like surveyors or door-to-door people - are probably better served by tablets anyways, and definitely don't want to deal with a USB dongle. If they have to, they'll just get a laptop with a M.2 GSM card. Whatever remains probably doesn't need 5G speeds to begin with. So yeah, it's a tiny market. Expect them to be expensive. There's a 5G USB dongle made by Apal available for €400, but that's about it. Are you sure 4G won't be enough? You can get one of those for €50 or so.

masklinn 4y ago
> and their phone is a pretty suitable backup hotspot. This one. When your phone can almost always act as a hotspot, you don't need a separate one. And for tourists it's much easier to get a 5G/WiFi hotspot at the airport for the duration of the trip. > The people who do need GSM-based internet - like surveyors or door-to-door people - are probably better served by tablets anyways, and definitely don't want to deal with a USB dongle. If they have to, they'll just get a laptop with a M.2 GSM card. Laptops in the space commonly have either built-in WWAN or a BTO option. I'm pretty sure you can get at least 4G on every Toughbook.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  I had a toshiva with 4G, back before 5G days, it was really neat.
pjc50 4y ago
I'm slightly surprised by this since IME public wifi is pretty bad, not to mention covered in all sorts of click through login walls, so where 4G is available and I'm not in a known good location, I prefer that. I do think 5G has been slightly miss-sold. Its main benefit is using the higher frequencies which have shorter effective range, so a busy location like a railway station that has thousands of people in can more effectively split them into microcells. But in most cases a "5G" phone is going to be using 4G infrastructure for a long time.
ghaff 4y ago
>Wifi access is near-universal, so the average consumer will pretty much never be without internet access - and their phone is a pretty suitable backup hotspot. For my last couple week urban European trip I decided to just see how I could get by with WiFi (and downloaded maps etc.) and rely on my AT&T pay by day only used as a backup. The answer was, yes, the various WiFi logins on trains etc. trying to extract marketing info from you ranged from mildly annoying to unusable. But, at the end of the day, there were only a few days I actually needed 5G. Though with the trend towards multiple eSIMs it's probably increasingly easy to just use one of those--although the major carriers have generally improved their international packages so it may not even be worth the trouble.
reacharavindh 4y ago
Considering that 5G is newer than 4G and all the carriers upgrading to pack their users into 5G, I thought it would be future-prood to get there instead of using 4G. Other than that, I dont really _need_ 5G for bandwidth or anything. I'll check out the 4G options then!
- toast0 4y ago
  5G and 4G are supposed to be able to share spectrum in a more selective way; not sure if it actually happens, but a combo 4g/5g base station runs a single control channel for both, and assigns slots as either 4g or 5g. 2g/3g needed to have a whole block of spectrum assigned. Doesn't mean 4g will never be turned off, but it makes it easier to keep it on.

by crote 4y ago

masklinn 4y ago

> and their phone is a pretty suitable backup hotspot. This one. When your phone can almost always act as a hotspot, you don't need a separate one. And for tourists it's much easier to get a 5G/WiFi hotspot at the airport for the duration of the trip. > The people who do need GSM-based internet - like surveyors or door-to-door people - are probably better served by tablets anyways, and definitely don't want to deal with a USB dongle. If they have to, they'll just get a laptop with a M.2 GSM card. Laptops in the space commonly have either built-in WWAN or a BTO option. I'm pretty sure you can get at least 4G on every Toughbook.

ClumsyPilot 4y ago
I had a toshiva with 4G, back before 5G days, it was really neat.

pjc50 4y ago

I'm slightly surprised by this since IME public wifi is pretty bad, not to mention covered in all sorts of click through login walls, so where 4G is available and I'm not in a known good location, I prefer that. I do think 5G has been slightly miss-sold. Its main benefit is using the higher frequencies which have shorter effective range, so a busy location like a railway station that has thousands of people in can more effectively split them into microcells. But in most cases a "5G" phone is going to be using 4G infrastructure for a long time.

ghaff 4y ago

>Wifi access is near-universal, so the average consumer will pretty much never be without internet access - and their phone is a pretty suitable backup hotspot. For my last couple week urban European trip I decided to just see how I could get by with WiFi (and downloaded maps etc.) and rely on my AT&T pay by day only used as a backup. The answer was, yes, the various WiFi logins on trains etc. trying to extract marketing info from you ranged from mildly annoying to unusable. But, at the end of the day, there were only a few days I actually needed 5G. Though with the trend towards multiple eSIMs it's probably increasingly easy to just use one of those--although the major carriers have generally improved their international packages so it may not even be worth the trouble.

reacharavindh 4y ago

Considering that 5G is newer than 4G and all the carriers upgrading to pack their users into 5G, I thought it would be future-prood to get there instead of using 4G. Other than that, I dont really _need_ 5G for bandwidth or anything. I'll check out the 4G options then!

toast0 4y ago
5G and 4G are supposed to be able to share spectrum in a more selective way; not sure if it actually happens, but a combo 4g/5g base station runs a single control channel for both, and assigns slots as either 4g or 5g. 2g/3g needed to have a whole block of spectrum assigned. Doesn't mean 4g will never be turned off, but it makes it easier to keep it on.