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Comment by ashleyn | Hacker News Reader

Except entertainment does count according to customer use metrics.

Does anyone feel 4G is lacking in any way? I don't think I'd notice if my phone's network was any faster.

I think it's more about power usage. Shorter bursts of more data vs having the radio on for longer.

The real issue is coverage, not highest-available speed. It doesn't matter if Verizon puts up a tower that lets you download 10GB per second if you live in an area that Verizon doesn't care about servicing.

but how/why would 5G increase coverage?

It doesn't matter if Verizon lets you download 10G a second if the average 10G/month data plan costs hundreds

The biggest thing preventing me from using 4G more has nothing to do with speed or coverage. It's the caps and pricing on bandwidth consumption. I doubt 5G is going to change that.

5G will increase capacity, especially in urban areas, enabling cheaper unlimited plans.

Looking only at capacity, it will definitely be cheaper to provide unlimited plans but even if that was the only factor, there isn't much of an incentive for carriers to change how they charge for bandwidth.

In all likelihood prices will go up as 5G requires a massive infrastructure deployment of very expensive hardware, spectrum licensing, and they'll have to pay to transmit and receive that data to the internet. All of those additional costs will be passed on to customers.

Even if it wasn't expensive to deploy, carrier customers pay for value provided. 5G will be in some way better, so more expensive. In the same way we use pay insane roaming rates until EU ruled they can't stay - suddenly carriers advertise how cheap the roaming is with them and how they're the first ones to offer it in the country...

How? The investment required is bigger than 4G

Faster autoplay ads to "serve you better" so to speak, no?

Of course... and they'll be better targeted to your precise location for tracking purposes too!

Let's not get too hyperbolic - 4G isn't perfect. I do regularly have issues getting any data connection in my office building in Chicago.

...that said, from the other comments, it sounds like 5G would make this issue worse...

Circuses, but maybe not so much bread?

People can already steam music and Netflix (or whatever) and be happy with it. You don't need 4k revolution (or lossless music) on your tablet. If you cared that much about quality, you'd watch $whatever on an actual monitor (which, given our technology, is EITHER easily mobile OR better in 4k). As such, "people entertain themselves" doesn't justify 5G, just better 4G coverage.

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