What extras will next year's 5G give me?

edward

Adopting the first release of new technology hasn’t always served me well. What more am I likely to get WRT 5G capabilities if I wait for Samsung’s 2020 release of 5G phones?  It’s the 5G-specifics I’m wondering about.

With luck, by then, Vodafone will have stopped their current crazy antic of capping 5G download speed at a small fraction of what I get with 4G, so it might be worth staying.

techquest

As you know 5G is still and emerging technology and the current offering by ISP's or phones is insignificant in what future developments hold.

edward

Thanks. What features would make me wish I'd waited until next year before signing up for a handset and 2 year contract now?

techquest

From my understanding both ISP's and mobile manufacturers are only offering basic stuff right now. I have heard that battery power is one thing on the handsets that leaves a lot to be desired as they tend to drain rapidly. Then you have the fact that the ISP have not rolled out 5G across the country and will take some time to do so.

Here's a view taken from the web that gives you some sense of why 5G is not all it's meant to be at this time or in the very near future for that matter.

Steven

The UK 5G rollout, including for Vodafone, is contingent upon the UK government making a decision on Huawei, good luck with a quick announcement this side of the EU negotiations. Only O2 is not using Huawei for their 5G network

Jamie

Let's not forget 5G has a much diminished range compared to longer wavelength signals so the cells will need to be much smaller. This means proper 5G rollout will probably need multiple transmitters just to cover an area served by a single cell tower. I've heard transmission distances of at most 500m
or less are the norm for 5G.

Added to that the chances of 5G working in a building is less likely due to shorter waves not penetrating as well as the longer waves/shorter frequency 4G signals.

Realistically for 5G to be useful even a small town like Harrogate where I live is going to need 100s of small cell towers and the chance of 5G being extended to anywhere other than built up areas is slim to none.

4G is capable of much faster speeds than it's currently achieving so I can see most users being on 4G most of the time for a while yet.

everett_psycho

We've had a few 5G events here and it could be an interesting thing. A lot of the use cases sound great but are not close to being implemented as it's not universally available for them to work. The current wave of 5G phones I really don't think will be worth it, they'll get faster speeds and everything but do you need 5G speeds? And they will be very patchy coverage while they put up more masts with awful indoor coverage. I'm not sure I see this improving to make a huge difference in phones soon. It does sound like 5G is an evolution and they will still be relying on 4G as a core part of the network for a lot of the legwork.

Short term three are doing it a sensible way, go to town with fixed wireless services to get the network out there and supply great speeds above and beyond what a copper line can handle. I work for a fttp company and they are trying to get as much market share before 5G turns up here as it's a hard sell to let us dig up driveways when 5G is so easy and gets the speeds.

Jamie

@everett_psycho that's a good point and a counterpoint to my negative post.

Maybe adoption could be driven by providing fixed services, so it's not just the mobile services but a possibly easier and cheaper way to provide households with fast internet.

I still will be surprised if 5G works at my house for a while yet but who knows.

everett_psycho

Bizarrely from nowhere our biggest mobile network here announced 5G that was due next year was live in a town here already and nobody knew. But it's not a big city, they've gone in to small rural areas to upsell to businesses with fixed wireless to test it out, as it's somewhere they won't be putting fttp it will likely get high uptake. I think given the infrastructure involved we may actually see 5G popping up in unusual places like towns and villages where 1 or 2 well placed towers could disrupt the status quo of using physical lines that wholesale operators view as to expensive to invest in upgrading to VDSL.

But yeah the the main selling point now is better phone connectivity that the tech isn't mature enough to sustain yet but I think it will help fixed wireless grow in to a more mainstream delivery to homes.

Jamie

Interesting, thanks for that.

Of course it'll all be moot in 20 years when we've all got cancer from 5G radiation