5G mobile how useful will it be for you?

[Rwy in Sight]

A simple question - how useful the additional speed of 5G will be in your life (or has been already)? And how happy are you with your smart home applications?

I am trying to understand if a 5G mobile will be a necessity or just "something good to have".

[Boac]

I think I might wait for 6

[Pontius Navigator]

RiS, probably one of those things that will become normal a bit like MS DOS lingered on in parallel with Windows. I have 4G only because my new cheap phone had 4G.

[ribrash]

Unless they are giving them away free with cornflakes I do not have a need or want 5G.I use my 4G phone for basic needs.

[Undried Plum]

Being a teuchtar, I've only ever had a 3G system. If you can't get a signal on 3G, I doubt you'll get one on 5G.

[tango15]

I just wish they'd make the whole mobile system more accessible. Granted, I live in the sticks or at least on the edge of them, but not one of the suppliers offer a decent signal. I can just about have a conversation if I go upstairs into the spare bedroom, but that's about it. Strange really, since I live on the top of a hill!

As I understand it, 5G just provides more bandwidth for those who want to play games and/or watch videos on their phones - something in which I have no interest whatsoever - I'm with UP!

[Boac]

If you can't get a signal on 3G, I doubt you'll get one on 5G

Certainly true if you substitute 4G for 5G, but since 5G uses a quite different distribution infrastructure to 3 and 4, probably true - but not necessarily.

[CharlieOneSix]

I just wish they'd make the whole mobile system more accessible. Granted, I live in the sticks or at least on the edge of them, but not one of the suppliers offer a decent signal.......

As we now have wireless internet I wanted to boot BT and their landline into touch but living in rural Aberdeenshire and, apart from one room upstairs, we had a weak and erratic 4G signal with EE so it wasn't practical to do that. I installed a signal booster which consists of a small external aerial that I put up on a gable end and which points vaguely in the direction of the nearest mobile phone mast. This connects to the booster itself which is connected to the mains in the loft. The booster connects to a small cone shaped internal aerial in the hallway ceiling and we now have a consistent maximum signal throughout nearly all the house and BT is a distant memory. DIY cost was about £300.

4Gmast.JPG (188.53 KiB) Viewed 792 times

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[unifoxos]

We are still waiting for a reliable 2G signal here.

[Boac]

Likewise. (I used to blackout at 7G )

[Rwy in Sight]

And I have said it before and with the discussion about udin wire bover WiFi I don't understand why one abandons the reliability of a land line over a wireless service

[Boac]

There are many advantages to using VOIP - as long as you have a reliable mobile 2G signal.

[CharlieOneSix]

......I don't understand why one abandons the reliability of a land line over a wireless service

If my landline had been reliable both in terms of voice and internet I wouldn't have abandoned it. For more than 20 years as soon as we had prolonged moderate rainfall we would get a crackling line which made understanding speech difficult plus we would lose the internet. BT never solved the problem somewhere in the 4 miles of copper wire between us and the exchange - ours was an ancient 'exchange only' line so no intermediate green street cabinets to help troubleshooting. I've lost track of how much BT paid us in compensation for loss of service over the years. At the very best of times we got only 1.5 Mb/s internet download speed and the Government eventually abandoned their plans for this area to be upgraded. With a grant for a wireless internet installation I opted for a 30 Mb/s download and 15Mb/s upload speed. More than 50% of the time we get 35-40 and 18-20 respectively - and it's a reliable service. Just as reliable is the 4G service in the circa two years since we abandoned the landline. Maybe we've been lucky.

[PHXPhlyer]

3G service shutting down here next year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... ks-ending/

Sorry for no cut and paste.
Desktop is ill and iPad is not happy with cnp.

PP

[Boac]

Sorry for no cut and paste.

Quite happy with link! Dinna fret.

[llondel]

Some of the US carriers are taking down their 2G networks, and I think 3G is on the way out too. At some point an old phone will just stop working. When they closed down the UK's old 405-line VHF TV they only had one complaint from a little old lady who was still watching it. They just bought her a new TV.

[Rwy in Sight]

......I don't understand why one abandons the reliability of a land line over a wireless service

If my landline had been reliable both in terms of voice and internet I wouldn't have abandoned it. For more than 20 years as soon as we had prolonged moderate rainfall we would get a crackling line which made understanding speech difficult plus we would lose the internet. BT never solved the problem somewhere in the 4 miles of copper wire between us and the exchange - ours was an ancient 'exchange only' line so no intermediate green street cabinets to help troubleshooting. I've lost track of how much BT paid us in compensation for loss of service over the years. At the very best of times we got only 1.5 Mb/s internet download speed and the Government eventually abandoned their plans for this area to be upgraded. With a grant for a wireless internet installation I opted for a 30 Mb/s download and 15Mb/s upload speed. More than 50% of the time we get 35-40 and 18-20 respectively - and it's a reliable service. Just as reliable is the 4G service in the circa two years since we abandoned the landline. Maybe we've been lucky.

Thanks for the explanation - as I have spent the majority of my time in an urban environment so I am not familiar with issues in rural settings.

[ExSp33db1rd]

My local mobile provider shut down any connection to 2G, and as my phone wouldn't receive 3G they sent me a new one free, which also reads 4G, so I guess I'm alright for a bit ? Perhaps they will do the same when they shut down 3G and 4G. Don't understand a word of it, and don't care, still get Internet via landline copper cable. Don't have a Smartfone, my Dimfone does all I need - occasionally, like when I run the car battery down and need to call the AA - leaving the headlights on following a trip in daylight heavy rain, or lowering the windows and opening the roof when parking on the driveway at home on a hot day, then forgetting to turn off the ignition key ! ( The motor bike, whilst also 12V couldn't provide enough grunt to jump start )