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Comment by JoshGlazebrook | Hacker News Reader

I'm not convinced that splitting up any of these wireless companies will better the end consumer. Spectrum is already in short supply, splitting up the already finite resource even more will lead to less bandwidth overall. There also is the capital cost of erecting more towers, more antennas for each of these companies.

It's not as simple as "lets split them up and it will all get better".

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As has been commented, consumers [EDIT: non-rural] do not actually need or want 5G. 4G is adequate for most of their needs.

5G densities are for factory automation, self-driving cars, drones, sensors, superdense urban centers etc.

I'm a consumer that wants 5G. There are many rural consumers that make use of 5G based internet.

And the 5G you are speaking of is mmwave. Mid-band 5G is perfectly useable and a significant improvement over LTE. Verizon and T-Mobile push over 1Gb/s over mid-band 5G at the same reach LTE provides and much less latency. mmwave you can get up to 4Gb/s (at short distances). Even more so when Verizon moves rolls out SA 5G in place of the current NSA 5G.

Speak for yourself, I want 5G. Also, I think you're conflating 5G as a whole with the variations like low-band, mid-band, and mmWave. 5G allows carriers to have more customers in a more compact area and give speed benefits. Have you never had just random drops out in a big city or a big concert with 4G? It's enraging. 5G helps fix that problem. 5G can also help people in rural areas that have no access to high-speed internet services, something T-Mobile has been pretty good at pushing.

5G is awesome. Finally decently reliable, low latency, fast, and cheap wireless home internet is available on 5G carriers.

A family member of mine uses T-Mo's contract-free 5G home internet. Latency low enough for video calls enabling WFH and playing online games. Speeds in the hundreds of megabits even during peak hours. $50/mo no contract.

I can take my cheap laptop around, pair it to my phone, and get the same internet pretty much anywhere in town. I can do cloud gaming or work anywhere I get cell service. I pay $15/mo no contract. It's awesome.

How do you pay only $15/month?

Mint.

how about one independent company owns the towers and wholesales bandwidth, and the brand names become resellers/customer service?

How about "The People" own the spectrum and infrastructure and rent it out.

How do "the people" make informed decisions on how to maintain/improve the infrastructure?

When you say "the people", you really mean the government. Out of curiosity, how does your customer experience with your cell provider compare to that of the DMV, IRS or any other government agency you may have had the pleasure of interacting with?

The solution to insufficient competition should not be to remove all competition (which would be the case with government ownership).

The people do own the spectrum and rent it out, to the tune of many billions of dollars.

https://www.fcc.gov/about-auctions

That is kind of what happens when licenses for the spectrum are auctioned.

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