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No company is doing more than rolling out in "a few cities" in 2019.

The 600 Mhz spectrum that T-Mobile got is a huge advantage. That is the old analog TV frequencies. In a city, what kind of indoor antenna did you need? Almost none, and you only needed that much because the signal on it was analog, and you'd get "ghosts". But this same bandwidth with digital phones is long-distance. It needs less signal strength to be a perfect signal. It goes through wooden walls, even concrete.
 
Whats the big deal about 5g? 4g is already 3x faster then my home internet...
The main benefits for end users are:
  1. Much lower latency: Each request on 4G/LTE network is typically 25 to 50 ms. On 5G, latency will be less than 5 ms, for more responsive wired broadband-like experience
  2. Home broadband: In some locations where wider spectrum is available or in some rural areas, wireless carrier will offer broadband service for home use
  3. More capacity: Since 5G can use wider range of frequencies and combinations (carrier aggregation), once 5G is fully deployed, we should experience far less data congestion (although probably by then, we will probably consume more Internet)
 
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I’d rather have them take their time to get it right. Don’t really care about a delay because I won’t even have a phone that supports it until late 2020. And considering that average consumers are on 3-4 year upgrade cycles, I doubt most people will care either, especially since gigabit speeds (or even half that) are pretty much pointless on mobile devices at this point. Increased coverage, especially on T-Mobile, will make a big difference.
 
Those photos! That is one sad look for a wealthy 56 year old. For heaven’s sake dress your age with some style already.
 
When I was growing up, we had a single phone line in the house and three phones. All three phones rang on the one line. There was a certain local calling area where calls were free. If you called outside of that calling area (i.e., long distance), you were charged a per minute rate which varied depending on where you were calling.

If you called an no one was home, the phone would ring and ring and ring until the caller got tired and just hung up. During this time there was a show called "The Rockford Files". The show always opened with an cassette answering machine answering a call for the main character and the caller leaving a message. Eventually the costs of these cassette recorders came down and my parents purchased one for the house. It worked about 75% of the time.

I moved away from home after the breakup of Bell Telephone. By this time you had a choice in who provided your long distance. But the local calls were provide by the local phone company which also offered voicemail for an additional monthly fee. I chose the voicemail and I chose Sprint for long distance service because the long distance was ten cents per minute and I didn't call long distance very much.

Eventually, Sprint started offering a $2 monthly credit which I seldom used because I didn't call long distance very much.

When my wife and I moved in together, Verizon bundled all the above together for a flat monthly rate. It had unlimited nationwide long distance.

I was a late adopter of cell phones. I didn't get my first cell phone until 2004 on Cingular. It came with something like 100 minutes a month or something like that. I don't think I could text with it or at least I never tried.

I was late at getting a smartphone. When I finally got a smartphone the talking and text was unlimited and I think I got 3 Gigs of data on AT&T. Last year I moved to Sprint on the kickstart plan and I have unlimited talk, text and data.

Why am I rambling on like this about days gone by? Because I think time spent arguing over 5G use in a smartphone is better spent arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. In my opinion, by the time 5G is fully deployed, smartphone use will be such a small component of total bandwidth that it will be bundled as an afterthought just like voicemail, long distance, cellular talking and text.

Pricing will be based on the content you select, the tools you use will be an afterthought.

This is the way Verizon Fios works now. It doesn't matter how many devices you connect or how much data you use. The price is still the same. I predict that we will see the same pricing structure for 5G.
 
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5G is a bigger deal in the home. Bye bye Comcast!

So much this!!! Can't wait!!!
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T-Mobile should have already made the push to have the 5G network up and running before the companies start rolling out the 5G smartphones. If the 5G network is limited, why would anyone get serious about buying a 5G smartphone this year? Even with the current 4G, coverage is not consistent and the speed varies from location to location.

The egg or the chicken...
 
There are no apps or use cases for phones that require any more performance that what LTE provides. The most intensive use of data is probably streaming movies. This is not moving from dialup to DSL or DSL to Cable or FIOS. Those leaps made uses that miserable somewhat more tolerable. Think of trying to stream audio on dialup or watching a movie on early DSL. When we made it to cable and FIOS the improvement was noticeable.
 
They're waiting for the ruling for their Sprint merger before proceeding with any roll-out.
 
While 5G may not be as groundbreaking as 4G, I think you are underestimating its values. 5G is much more efficient at using the spectrum, allowing greater capacity. That in turn is good for customers -- less data congestion, quicker connection (lower latency), and once 5G chipsets are mature enough (most of us shouldn't rush into getting a 5G phone), longer battery life.

WHO CARES. I will still work a 40 hour week regardless. Will 5G get me more time for my kids or to be more helpful for my community? (5G is the reality TV of technology)
 
5G is going to change everything. What is with people saying it’s not a big deal? This is going to be light years faster than 4G or even wired Gigabit Fiber to the home! Seriously, no more latency issues, gaming online real time, instant downloads of movies in 4K and beyond, and no more need for 1TB of SSD in MacBook Pro and etc as all will be cloud based and faster than a lightning cable could ever provide. Faster than fast. It’s going to change everything, and whoever said Apple will not sell any 2019 iPhones is partially correct. I suspect it will not hurt Apple in the holiday quarter, but come March and April 2020, everyone will want what 5G offers!!! In their homes, cars and yes in their pockets!
 
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No point in making services available, if no one can take advantage of them..

I guess a transition phase..... Stick 5G in LTE phones *now* then when it does come no one will need new phones. :)

5G will be a disaster, a health disaster.
The government doesn't want you to be able to sue for health effects, that says it all:
https://safehelpsyou.org/2019/02/24...odG7qZfaRGTUwLlReWGVzYXhP11AxLpE_q7-j2zrJBjLE


We went through the same with 4G as well didn't we ?

The govenment can only re-visit this, because they can... It's too easy to shout out early before any evidence has come out.
 
Imo, 5G would be nothing to hold out for.

5G coverage for the majority of the US will be isolated to urban and population centers for many years to come.

If people need or want a new iPhone, the lack 5G won’t really hold knowledgeable people back.
Most people live in urban and population centers.
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It's too easy to shout out early before any evidence has come out.

There is evidence that cellular radiation at "acceptable" levels causes an increase in cancerous tumors in male rats. Yes, only male rats (for some reason) and only animal studies at this time. Clearly more research is needed though. Particularly since 5G necessitates many more transmitters all over the place because of its shorter range. It used to be easy to avoid living under a cell tower..
 
Imo, 5G would be nothing to hold out for.

5G coverage for the majority of the US will be isolated to urban and population centers for many years to come.

If people need or want a new iPhone, the lack 5G won’t really hold knowledgeable people back.

Admittedly, the majority of the population is also isolated to urban and population centers.

Most people live in urban and population centers.

Maybe else where in the world, but in the US 70% of the population lives in suburban(50%) and rural(20%) areas.

It depends on how you group them.

According to Verizon's 5G roadmap, they are currently only covering highly dense metropolitan areas, not suburbs. They are currently in 4 cities. They plan on launching in more cities, most likely highly dense areas.

Now if you group the suburbs with the highly dense population centers, then this would be over 80% of the US population, but it looks like it will be a while before 5G coverage will get to suburban areas.

Even with the other 30% of the population that lives in highly dense areas, many of them still commute, shop, and travel in areas outside of population centers.

So, the point of 5G coverage being in a tiny % of the US will most likely effect not only the people living outside of cities, but even many people within the cities.
 
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I would be happy if they just improved the signal strength of LTE. Inside my apartment AT&T and Verizon are two bars in strength according to my iPhone and iPad. T-Mobile is worse!! Walk into my apartment building and the signal goes from 5 bars outside to No Service! So 5G is just a lot of hyper fluff and nonsense, try improving the quality of the existing service!

This is pretty much exactly what they were talking about. T-Mobile plans to roll out lower frequency 5G so that it covers a wider area (and that includes being able to pass through some obstacles).

Also, what is your roof made out of? Metal roofs are notorious for blocking signal.
 
We must fight the 5G rollout. There is no need for 5G, other than "overpopulation" control.
Have fun with cancer while you can watch 4k youtube on your 5" phone.
 
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