4G, 5G and now 6G are worthless if cell providers don’t provide enough bandwidth to the towers. The range also keeps decreasing as the generations increase, so now there are these big gaps that 3G used to cover.
In my area, 5G is slower than 4G and both have lower signal and slower speeds than 3G used to have. I need a dual SIM phone and to constantly switch my phone between AT&T and T-Mobile, and both are crap. I only use about 1GB in total too, and I’m lucky if I can pull more than 1 megabit on either service. I miss 3G speeds, coverage, and competition.
Worst of all, AT&T is forcing home users to switch to a 5G hotspot from DSL. It’s probably a big part of why the cell towers are always overloaded too. Imagine running your home internet on 1 megabit with constant drops…
Yeah but eventually they upgrade plus lots of them want to remove copper if they haven’t yet and switch towers to fiber so I feel eventually it improves but yeah slower than expected.
The wave forms of 6G will physically break the ankles of birds in flight and neuter your dog through the roof of the house. Yoghurt will never taste the same and your feet will go up two sizes forcing you to buy new shoes. The writing is clearly on the wall.
"This is an important research question because we can see mobile traffic going up over the next decade by a factor of 10 or even a factor of 20. "
Wtf are they going to do with that? Always-on video from wireless devices everywhere? Holographic movies on every web page? It sounds terrible. I remember having to make phone calls for basic communication. These days you send a text or email, except now and then you want the higher bandwidth of a voice call. That is, we have been moving toward LESS bandwidth rather than more.
Whatever is imagined being done with all the new bandwidth can’t be good.
How much extra do I have to pay to not be in video calls? I almost never watch videos while mobile but I guess some people do. I doubt if I could tell the difference between SD and HD on a phone screen though.
Your personal usage does not align with the majority. Look at tiktok, it’s social media based around endless video files. It’s not an occasional text or email, it’s hundreds of videos that your constantly scrolling through.
OK, good point. Are people using mobile data for that? Yes you’re right I’m not on social media etc. Also I’m on a super cheap mobile plan with enough monthly data to check email and look at some occasional web pages, but if I want to watch a video I almost always use home internet for that. I guess if this super high bandwidth mobile stuff kills Comcast though, some good will have come out of it. The Register article talks mostly about IoT and “AI/ML” rather than social media though.
Is 5g mobile data cheaper for the end user than 4g in practice? The sticker prices and advertised data caps for monthly plans look to me to be about the same as before, but maybe more of the data cap is usable in practice.
OK, good point. Are people using mobile data for that?
Unlimited data. You do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want.
I haven’t seen any carriers charging extra for 5g but I don’t see why it would be more expensive since the quicker you’re done using the data the quicker the tower can serve someone else.
That’s what I mean, it seems to cost as much as before. I was hoping to hear that it had gotten a lot cheaper, not stayed the same. Ideally, it should be pervasive and free, but I don’t mind in that case if it is relatively slow.
Every “unlimited” mobile plan I’ve heard of has fine print that says it slows to a crawl after some amount. I don’t know if the real limits are different in practice, so I was asking about that.
Got to justify asking for more money to roll this shit out. Glad we get our moneys worth out of all that fiber we already paid for … Over and over and over again already. guess there’s no limits when its not your money…
In the US, the government doesn’t spend money on mobile operators. In fact, mobile operators pay the government for use of radio frequencies used to provide services.
I haven’t even bought a 5G phone yet. My carrier keeps threatening to cut 4G coverage in various areas, and has already axed 3G entirely, rendering large swathes of otherwise perfectly functional devices useless. So far my 4G Moto Z still works. For now.
At this point my conspiracy opinion that the constant “generation” changes are mostly to just force people to buy/lease new phones and devices. Even pokey old 4G has always been more than fast enough for all of my mobile internet activities. Hell, even 3G was.
I have no less than four otherwise flawlessly functional phones in a desk drawer that just won’t work with my cell carrier because they’ve either turned off 3G or discontinued the specific 4G bands those devices need.
I live in a medium size city with extensive Verizon coverage. 5g here is still dogshit. It’s always slower than LTE and even though towers are everywhere, my phone is constantly switching back and forth.
On T-Mobile shitty 5g is just called 5g in the top next to your signal strength. The mmwave 5g is called 5g uc. Every carrier does something different.
I totally agree with you that generation changes are either currently or going to be used as a form of planned obsolescence. I reckon that within 10 years or so we’ll have sub generation types (things 6.5G) that will force people to buy new devices.
It’s still a small number of users no matter how many use cases you list. There are newer Kindles and newer cars. 3g being turned off is inevitable no matter how many old devices are in existence.
I was forced to upgrade since i was still rocking a 3g phone and my area switched to 5g. The phone company gave me a free Pixel6 since it wasnt my choice to upgrade. Maybe if you hold out long enough you’ll just get a free upgrade. Though it was a double edge sword, since they tried to up my monthly bill since i was “upgraded” to “premium data”. I had to fight that and still ended up paying a few bucks more than previously, but better than what they tried to charge me.
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Why don’t we just skip 6G and just go straight to 7G
If they’re going to skip anything, it’s going to be 8… Because 7, 8, 9!
I mean, you might have a point there.
If seven ate nine, but you skip eight, it’s all OK! Seven nine.
But… But… Seven ate nine.
You ate eight!
Seven nine!
Waaaahhh!
Nah dude… That’s why they skipped 9 because 7 ate it. 9 was never a viable option
Said the Phone/ISPs top earning guys while looking at their bank accounts extracts.
If 5g makes the frog gay would 6g negate it?
Nah this will be something related with Satan and 666 and hell and so on.
The 6 Gs of the apocalypse. G G G G G G
Gluttony, Gargoyle, Gollum, Ganesha, Gabriel, Gesus…
Well yes, since it makes the frog trans so it goes from gay to straight
4G, 5G and now 6G are worthless if cell providers don’t provide enough bandwidth to the towers. The range also keeps decreasing as the generations increase, so now there are these big gaps that 3G used to cover.
In my area, 5G is slower than 4G and both have lower signal and slower speeds than 3G used to have. I need a dual SIM phone and to constantly switch my phone between AT&T and T-Mobile, and both are crap. I only use about 1GB in total too, and I’m lucky if I can pull more than 1 megabit on either service. I miss 3G speeds, coverage, and competition.
Worst of all, AT&T is forcing home users to switch to a 5G hotspot from DSL. It’s probably a big part of why the cell towers are always overloaded too. Imagine running your home internet on 1 megabit with constant drops…
Pay attention to what corps oppose things like
Yeah but eventually they upgrade plus lots of them want to remove copper if they haven’t yet and switch towers to fiber so I feel eventually it improves but yeah slower than expected.
I can hear the conspiracies already!
The wave forms of 6G will physically break the ankles of birds in flight and neuter your dog through the roof of the house. Yoghurt will never taste the same and your feet will go up two sizes forcing you to buy new shoes. The writing is clearly on the wall.
It’s not even out yet and it’s making my back hurt!
username checks out
The fact that she’s wearing a yellow shirt in the article thumbnail makes this just 👌
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RKc4QhMSFG8
"This is an important research question because we can see mobile traffic going up over the next decade by a factor of 10 or even a factor of 20. "
Wtf are they going to do with that? Always-on video from wireless devices everywhere? Holographic movies on every web page? It sounds terrible. I remember having to make phone calls for basic communication. These days you send a text or email, except now and then you want the higher bandwidth of a voice call. That is, we have been moving toward LESS bandwidth rather than more.
Whatever is imagined being done with all the new bandwidth can’t be good.
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How much extra do I have to pay to not be in video calls? I almost never watch videos while mobile but I guess some people do. I doubt if I could tell the difference between SD and HD on a phone screen though.
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deleted by creator
Your personal usage does not align with the majority. Look at tiktok, it’s social media based around endless video files. It’s not an occasional text or email, it’s hundreds of videos that your constantly scrolling through.
OK, good point. Are people using mobile data for that? Yes you’re right I’m not on social media etc. Also I’m on a super cheap mobile plan with enough monthly data to check email and look at some occasional web pages, but if I want to watch a video I almost always use home internet for that. I guess if this super high bandwidth mobile stuff kills Comcast though, some good will have come out of it. The Register article talks mostly about IoT and “AI/ML” rather than social media though.
Is 5g mobile data cheaper for the end user than 4g in practice? The sticker prices and advertised data caps for monthly plans look to me to be about the same as before, but maybe more of the data cap is usable in practice.
Unlimited data. You do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want.
I haven’t seen any carriers charging extra for 5g but I don’t see why it would be more expensive since the quicker you’re done using the data the quicker the tower can serve someone else.
That’s what I mean, it seems to cost as much as before. I was hoping to hear that it had gotten a lot cheaper, not stayed the same. Ideally, it should be pervasive and free, but I don’t mind in that case if it is relatively slow.
Every “unlimited” mobile plan I’ve heard of has fine print that says it slows to a crawl after some amount. I don’t know if the real limits are different in practice, so I was asking about that.
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They can’t even give me more than 20GB a month without forking over more than I pay for my home internet, never happening in my lifetime.
I guess it’s for streaming?
I’m not into any of that livestream stuff and I cannot believe that people stream their lives and other people want to watch it.
We Moroccans don’t even have 5G countrywide yet, and yet you guys are already prepping for 6G? At least wait for everyone to catch up.
If we did that, nothing new would ever happen. A lot of third world nations have yet to industrialize ffs
Oh.
Does this mean we can do proper voice over 4G already? Last time I heard it was just for the selected phone models with specific software.
Ive forced my phone to only use 4G as 5G allows for far greater location tracking.
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I’m still waiting for 5G to revolutionize everything like every carrier promised it would.
WE DIDN’T NEED 5G
Got to justify asking for more money to roll this shit out. Glad we get our moneys worth out of all that fiber we already paid for … Over and over and over again already. guess there’s no limits when its not your money…
In the US, the government doesn’t spend money on mobile operators. In fact, mobile operators pay the government for use of radio frequencies used to provide services.
Just skip to 10G already.
My wireless technology goes up to 11G
That’s just 10G but the 10 is crossed out
Yeah because 11G is higher than 10G
I haven’t even bought a 5G phone yet. My carrier keeps threatening to cut 4G coverage in various areas, and has already axed 3G entirely, rendering large swathes of otherwise perfectly functional devices useless. So far my 4G Moto Z still works. For now.
At this point my conspiracy opinion that the constant “generation” changes are mostly to just force people to buy/lease new phones and devices. Even pokey old 4G has always been more than fast enough for all of my mobile internet activities. Hell, even 3G was.
I have no less than four otherwise flawlessly functional phones in a desk drawer that just won’t work with my cell carrier because they’ve either turned off 3G or discontinued the specific 4G bands those devices need.
I live in a medium size city with extensive Verizon coverage. 5g here is still dogshit. It’s always slower than LTE and even though towers are everywhere, my phone is constantly switching back and forth.
mmwave 5g or “5g”? On T-Mobile near me I get anywhere from 200Mbps down to over gigabit down depending on the location.
A few areas are the shitty 5g that’s essentially 4g+. But most areas around me have really good coverage with pretty insane speeds.
How would anyone know? Why is it even possible to “fake” 5G? Just makes everyone that doesn’t know about it to just complain and think it sucks.
On T-Mobile shitty 5g is just called 5g in the top next to your signal strength. The mmwave 5g is called 5g uc. Every carrier does something different.
I totally agree with you that generation changes are either currently or going to be used as a form of planned obsolescence. I reckon that within 10 years or so we’ll have sub generation types (things 6.5G) that will force people to buy new devices.
What percentage of people use 3g only phones? If it’s 1%, does it make sense to keep those services running just for those people?
Older Kindles. Cars
It’s still a small number of users no matter how many use cases you list. There are newer Kindles and newer cars. 3g being turned off is inevitable no matter how many old devices are in existence.
It’s not necessarily phones. It’s trackers, monitoring devices, laptops, access points, and tablets that all run over 3G bands.
Great! You can get 4g/5g versions of those devices because, again, the world doesn’t owe the 1% of users services
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I was forced to upgrade since i was still rocking a 3g phone and my area switched to 5g. The phone company gave me a free Pixel6 since it wasnt my choice to upgrade. Maybe if you hold out long enough you’ll just get a free upgrade. Though it was a double edge sword, since they tried to up my monthly bill since i was “upgraded” to “premium data”. I had to fight that and still ended up paying a few bucks more than previously, but better than what they tried to charge me.