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Comment by linkregister | Hacker News Reader

This is an argument against US operators. Higher density means higher utilization and therefore ROI for each cell tower. European cities with higher density than Manhattan have far better mobile and wired internet.

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Not an expert here, but aren't there more constraints such a spectrum if you have more population density? You can only fit some much data in an air band no?

Build more towers. Which ofcourse means investing money and not paying dividends to investors.

I pay €35 per month for unlimited 4G, internet neutrality included.

I think the GP is talking about saturation of the frequency band. "Build more towers" doesn't solve this problem.

It does to a great extent. You provide more towers that each has a smaller coverage area.

Ah, sounds like I'm mistaken then.

Also there is cell sectorization, which is why most cell towers are arranged in triangles of antenna arrays.

> Build more towers.

Not always doable and never free.

Not always doable, but who is asking for free service?

I already pay for shitty service. I would be willing to continue to pay for improved service.

You will also continue to pay for the shitty service if you have no alternatives.

Yup

Case study: South Korea and its population density but still achieving immense success.

but higher density also means much more interference so it is technically much harder to achieve good speed

Does that apply to ethernet lines though? Those would still be dwarfed by other economies' speeds, right?

Stupid Apple removed the Ethernet jack from my phone.

Hilariously, with their addiction to USB C and dongles, haven't they now provided a reasonable ability to connect Ethernet into your phone?

iPhones still use the lightning port, and Ethernet to lightning ports are a bit on the pricey side.

Also, while I hate t link to a lifehacker article, the lead photo is pretty hilarious in terms of the need for that many adapters to connect an iPad or iPhone to Ethernet and to keep it charged. (https://lifehacker.com/hack-together-a-way-to-connect-an-ipa...) Android isn't much better, but at least it uses a more common and cheaper USB-micro or USB-C.

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