I’ve heard multiple issues with 5G, like range and stuff, effectively sacrificing range and reliability for even more speed just so that companies can market it better. Do you think 5G is a downgrade compared to 4G?

  • Avid Amoeba
    link
    fedilink
    English
    7
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    mmWave 5G can have much worse signal strength than 5G running in the 700-2400MHz spectrum. Its range is much shorter and it gets disturbed by air particles like rain. With that said, I don’t know if one could get only mmWave reception or whether mmWave can be used only in addition to 700-2400MHz for speed augmentation. 🤔

    • @deranger
      link
      English
      210 months ago

      IME rain and humidity has little to no effect. I can get 900mbps in clear skies or in a torrential downpour as long as I’m not behind multiple walls. The single wall I have to contend with at work (not counting cube walls) barely affects reception. If I’m standing under the tower I can get 1gbps.

      • Avid Amoeba
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        That’s probably not going through mmWave signal but the sub-mmWave spectrum we’ve previously used for 4G. I’ve hit >400Mbps on good ol’ LTE back in 2018 on AWS.

        The most widely used form of 5G, sub-6 GHz 5G (mid-band), is capable of delivering data rates ranging from 10 to 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps) [1]

        According to this, 5G should be able to do 1Tb on sub-mmWave.

        [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G?wprov=sfla1