Hacker News Reader

Comment by whoisburbansky | Hacker News Reader

Is 5G rollout in the US really comprehensive enough at this point to deliver on any of the promises they're making about it at this event?

[Edit: found this benchmark from a month ago: https://www.tomsguide.com/features/5g-vs-4g] basically looks like Verizon delivers on the promised speeds, but it still isn't clear to me what the spatial distribution of the higher speeds looks like.

View on HN

No. This article also discusses Verizon, not just AT&T: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/atts-...

Are the speeds really that important or are they already good enough? Any time I try to do something substantial over cellular I wish for either better coverage or lower latencies (oh, the latencies... even with great signal strength)

It depends on whether the higher speeds let you use mobile in conditions where WiFi/broadband is flaky or unavailable. But, I agree in general that is a bigger problem in more rural areas and that's where mobile range is more important as well.

on TMO, 5G speeds are basically the same as 4G but I've that the 5G is actually a bit more pervasive

I have an iPhone11. My phone says it connects to 5G already, so I’m actually confused by this launch. Why would iOS tell me I’m connected to 5G? I’ll be honest that I’m unfamiliar with this space

Telecom companies renamed some 4G networks 5G because they technically fall within the standard.

Which is silly because even most 4G networks (LTE) don’t technically fall within the original standard of 4G. ITU actually lowered the standard of 4G to meet the limitations of LTE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_(telecommunication)).

5Ge is a marketing term AT&T invented as a rebrand of 4G LTE. It isn't 5G, but it's probably faster than real 5G for now.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/atts-...

I got stuck trying to explain (without being the annoying "well, actually" guy) why my SO's phone wasn't screwed up when switching from ATT to a different carrier.

Because on the old SIM it said 5G dammit! Now it only says 4G so how is that not slower??

Apple deserves to be shamed for this one, as they implemented a feature that essentially allows carriers to lie and display whatever network technology icon they want, instead of displaying the true status as reported by the network interface.

This is a part of the standard, nothing really Apple can do about it.

Source? It's the first time I hear that carriers are able to override the network technology/protocol logo. As far as I know the whole "carrier profile" thing (which is what allows carriers to do this, among other things like arbitrarily restrict tethering, etc) is Apple-specific.

No the same capacities exist,though perhaps not under the same name, on Android; my S10+ dutifully switched from reporting 4G LTE to 5Ge when AT&T decided on that lie.

Android manufacturers are even worse when it comes to this as they let carriers customize the firmware completely (which then interferes with updates) and should also be shamed. This doesn't however say that this is some kind of standard; it's just OS manufacturers being in bed with carriers and doing them favors.

I remember this rolled out with an update to iOS, so it’s not purely carrier-specific. Apple changed something in the operating system to allow it.

AT&T defines LTE with better back haul as “5G”. It’s BS.

I live in a midwest city with a population around 25,000. We won't see 5G for a long, long time. We need signal that goes farther, not faster. 4G is still being rolled out to more rural areas. 5G is a feature I'd rather not pay for.

200k city here, don't see it happening any time soon.

They say here (from within the past 15 mins):

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/10/13/210785...

> Verizon 5G Nationwide service is available today to more than 200 million people in 1,800 cities around the US.

I'm sure there's some trickery going on here, though?

available in 1,800 cities doesn't mean coverage in 1,800 cities - a lot of venue coverage is being counted

There's a lot going on there like "5G service in city X!" where they really mean "we have an antenna mounted at the ballpark to cover a high density use case."

Sure. But at this point even just one 5G base station each for 1.8k cities/towns is a pretty decent step up.

There's really 3 types of 5G: ultra-wideband, mid-band, and low-band. Ultra-wideband is the 5G you hear about most, with gigabit speeds but you have to be within direct line of sight to the cell site. There's also mid-band and low-band, which have similar ranges to LTE and can deliver a few hundred megabits instead of gigabits, and can handle problems like congestion better.

70,000 city here. 5G pole went up outside my window last week. Tried to get the pole moved but not successful :(

> We need signal that goes farther, not faster.

5G can potentially help with that when deployed on existing spectrum, because increased transmission rates reduces airtime utilization, and some cells adjust their range based on utilization. It might not help much, depending on current utilization and terrain and what not, but it'll probably help some, and I imagine carriers will do gradual deployments of that to lower density areas when there's enough handsets that support it and base station equipment is cost reduced enough. I don't think it's going to be fast, but I don't think it'll be on the long, long time scale.

Of course, 5G on the new high frequency spectrum is unlikely to be useful in low density areas, and is unlikely to be deployed. Also, I think AT&T has plans to declare their LTE coverage to be 5G :P

5G phone with no 5G to use and the carriers have been working on 5G for the past 3 to 5 years?

Verizon just announced they are expanding today their 5g in three US cities... yet in reality there isn't much 5G now in those cities they mentioned.

Pointless marketing by all!

It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, isn’t it? By getting the chipsets out in the phone they’re at least solving the chicken part. Plus, iPhones are usually supported for a good 5 years, so this is a bit of future proofing for people who buy today.

I think the 3 cities are the 5g mmWave technology; Verizon’s general 5g coverage is much broader than that.

Here in Switzerland, the rollout got delayed by the conspiracy theorists

Mobile providers still upgraded their existing antennas. With my Note20 Ultra 5G on Sunrise, half of the time I am outdoors I get 5G (in Aargau) with speeds between 400mbps-600mbps.

No. But they probably sell enough iPhones to rich people in big cities that it's justified.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com