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Comment by grishka | Hacker News Reader

So what's the point of 5G again?

To buy new phones!

More seriously, as more 5G is deployed it should speed up. Also I believe 5G allows more phones to use a single tower at once which should make the carriers job easier. Especially at very busy places like festivals and sporting events.

I live in a country that won't see 5G soon, if ever (that is, not in the US). My point is that the existing LTE networks are plenty fast for all intents and purposes. I don't always notice the difference even between 3G and 4G.

So, then, it comes naturally to ask what is the exact problem that 4G has but 5G aims to solve, besides all the marketing and change for its own sake. Especially that weird kind of 5G that can't go through your hand and has coverage area of a single tower smaller than that of a WiFi access point.

actual development and standardization uses shorter cycles than the 5G hype cycle.

release 8 is slow. your phone would show 4G

release 14 is super fast. your phone would show 4G

release 15 will show 5G but it's just one iteration away from fast 4G.

it brings some cool techniques that boost efficiency (more people in the same cell can download things, increasing the average speed) -- and other stuff. peak download rate is one of the less interesting features, but most prominent.

My understanding is there are two forms of 5G. One works like 4G but faster, and the other (millimeter wave) has the limitations you mentioned but crazy high bandwidth.

We’ll probably get a mix of the two deployed depending on topography, density, cost, etc.

I feel like phone manufacturers realized that phones are too good and there is not much to motivate people to buy newer models.

Remember, you must have a 5G capable phone!

Latency

The rest of the internet doesn't care about that. Latency improvements are from your device to the cell tower only. So probably 5ms improvement.

Actually, people kind of care with conference calls

Main source of latency is not the last mile in regards to mobile networks. So yes, the rest of the internet doesn't care, as those routes are not going to change just because you now have 5G.

It entails so much more than just latency improvements.

Care to elaborate?

Well someone needs to buy Qualcom's chips.

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