iPhone XS Max Why do you need 5G?

[Sledneck52]

Just asking. Not really sure why someone would need 5G speeds other then to see them on Ookla. What do you do on your phone that would warrant 5G over 4G LTE?
"Most" people are just checking social media, lite browsing, email and occasional streaming. Even 4K only needs 15-20mbps down if not less on a mobile device.

Where I live, I get 70-90mbps at best down on T-mobile and I am in a rural area. Typically I will get 40-50mbps when the towers are congested.

 

[Sledneck52]

 

[Applefan2015]

So I can do what I’m doing with my phone now even faster.

 

[C DM]

More or less similar reasoning as why someone would have wanted 4G (LTE) over 3G when that was being released.

 

[JPack]

Tethering my MacBook Pro.

Higher speeds inside a building, underground, or other areas with poor signal.

Uploading large files to my organization's shared drive.

 

[VineRider]

My wish for 5g is that someday I will be able to untether my home internet from my current provider. Home 5g over cellular could really open up competition. As it is, I have only two options for home internet where I live, and neither one is that great. Being able to choose from a variety of cellular options would likely drive better services as you would not be tied to whoever has physically installed cable or fiber in your neighborhood.

Regarding phone use, I really don't see a huge benefit to 5g for my usage at the present time. As the technology advances and matures, I am sure that will change.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Inside the house I am getting 26mbps which is more than fast enough to stream HD video. I don’t need 5G but, T-Mobile won’t be charging extra for it so, I will take it when I have a phone and iPad that supports it.

 

[Sledneck52]

My wish for 5g is that someday I will be able to untether my home internet from my current provider. Home 5g over cellular could really open up competition. As it is, I have only two options for home internet where I live, and neither one is that great. Being able to choose from a variety of cellular options would likely drive better services as you would not be tied to whoever has physically installed cable or fiber in your neighborhood.

Regarding phone use, I really don't see a huge benefit to 5g for my usage at the present time. As the technology advances and matures, I am sure that will change.

I am waiting for Starlink for broadband on my street. We only have 12mbps dsl available.
I share my internet with a local wood shop about 3/4 of a mile away using 5ghz AP’s.
I get 110mbps down with this setup.

 

[now i see it]

the tech wasn't developed because phones needed to download apps faster but it could alleviate the need for isps to bury more fiber to homes

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I don’t really need it as I’m on WiFi 95% of the time I suppose.

 

[Momof2.1107]

If my carrier don’t charge extra for it why not buy a phone that supports it, that I could use for 2-3 years before upgrading to another device?

 

[freeagent]

My cell service is light years faster than that other one posted above. I honestly don't need it.

 

[rui no onna]

This is why:

 

[Ericdjensen]

Completely agree. I can stream live vids in HD with LTE. Unless I plan on downloading a movie in less than 5 mins, what will 5g do for me? I know it’ll help at concerts, sporting events, etc but other than that it seems pointless

 

[rdy0329]

It's not needed now but here are some benefits:

low latency - near instant interactions (VR/AR, Gameplay, Remote device operations like and surgeries, mining)

• proof of concepts include: Car to infra comms where cars receive stoplight data to maximize fuel efficiency and know when to slow down/speed up, know hazards in advance, lane congestion etc. Technically it can consider all those data to calculate a way to cruise through a road avoiding red lights.
• Remote operated cranes and trucks to avoid health hazards in dangerous types of industries.

more efficient - handles more user and outputs more bandwidth for the same amount of spectrum.

TL;DR 5G, and what I'm assuming most of what our phones will connect to is low and mid band flavor which will just be another highway parallel to 4G. The upside is, that highway is not yet congested and the toll is the price of the iPhone 12 Pro. Early birds benefit from not rubbing elbows with 4G users.

 

[rui no onna]

more efficient - handles more user and outputs more bandwidth for the same amount of spectrum.

TL;DR 5G, and what I'm assuming most of what our phones will connect to is low and mid band flavor which will just be another highway parallel to 4G. The upside is, that highway is not yet congested and the toll is the price of the iPhone 12 Pro. Early birds benefit from not rubbing elbows with 4G users.

Well said. Makes me think of SoCal traffic. I reckon most places just don't have the same level of traffic. I'm guessing SoCal's probably in the top 10 (or really worst 10) for traffic in US.

We're considered essential so we had to keep going into work daily. While the stay-at-home orders were in effect, I've got plenty of co-workers who enjoyed 20-30 minute commutes instead of their usual 2 hours or so. I expect wireless situation is similar particularly downtown.

 

[cynics]

Since this will be rolled out in phases its unlikely we will benefit too much with speed and such. Carriers will meet or barely exceed current LTE performance unless the area in question is below average speed/coverage/bandwidth/etc. They will reduce overhead to make the most amount of profit available.

However there are few places the carriers benefit from 5G will align with our own. The backend is designed to handle the traffic better which means better reliability all around. Latency can be reduced from best case 10ms with LTE to best case 1ms with 5g (Verizon). Better infrastructure to better support smartphone protocols and features natively. High traffic towers like at events to support the user base. I'm sure there are other things but its seems to be more suited to our data uses instead of generic data transferring.

 

[iemcj]

More or less similar reasoning as why someone would have wanted 4G (LTE) over 3G when it was that was being released.

Not really. Even at the time we KNEW 3g was slow. It was a poor substitute for land based wifi. Everything was slow and we had to watch youtube on the lowest quality to work. Videos buffered ALL the time. It was a far worse experience than wifi and you were very limited.

With LTE/4g, honestly it's overkill for anything we need even for the most diehard user. You can have 2 different 4k HDR video streams, which even one of them is beyond anything your phone screen can actually show anyway. There physically isn't any benefit even if you make the download speed 10x what it is now. Not unless you're using it as a hotspot for a whole house.

 

[rui no onna]

Not really. Even at the time we KNEW 3g was slow. It was a poor substitute for land based wifi. Everything was slow and we had to watch youtube on the lowest quality to work. Videos buffered ALL the time. It was a far worse experience than wifi and you were very limited.

With LTE/4g, honestly it's overkill for anything we need even for the most diehard user. You can have 2 different 4k HDR video streams, which even one of them is beyond anything your phone screen can actually show anyway. There physically isn't any benefit even if you make the download speed 10x what it is now. Not unless you're using it as a hotspot for a whole house.

Perhaps 3G CDMA was like that but 3G UMTS/HSPA+ was actually fairly decent (comparable to DSL). Iirc, I got around 5-8 Mbps on 3G before the network got congested and it dropped down to 2-3 Mbps.

Peak LTE speed is around 20-50 Mbps where I work but the only time I actually see that is around 6 AM. The above speed test of 500 Kbps down / 610 Kbps up was on T-Mobile. Needless to say, that gives you stop motion, pixelated blur when streaming video.

 

[firedept]

It will be available to me.

 

[C DM]

Not really. Even at the time we KNEW 3g was slow. It was a poor substitute for land based wifi. Everything was slow and we had to watch youtube on the lowest quality to work. Videos buffered ALL the time. It was a far worse experience than wifi and you were very limited.

With LTE/4g, honestly it's overkill for anything we need even for the most diehard user. You can have 2 different 4k HDR video streams, which even one of them is beyond anything your phone screen can actually show anyway. There physically isn't any benefit even if you make the download speed 10x what it is now. Not unless you're using it as a hotspot for a whole house.

People say similar things about gigabit internet too and yet plenty of people get it and like it.

 

[eyoungren]

So I can do what I’m doing with my phone now even faster.

Not sure what you do with your phone because you didn't mention it, but for me it's hard to see how phone calls will be faster, text messages will be faster and emails will be faster. I mean, those things all go at the speed they go and whether I'm on 1xRTT, 3G, LTE, or 5G it's hard to see how you can make them 'faster'.

Will 5G mean I'm a speed talker on phone calls?

 

[ian87w]

The move to 5G from 4G (and 4G from 3G) are mostly for the benefit of the carriers. More bandwidth means each tower can handle more users (and they can advertise faster speed and sell the extra bandwidth). In non-congested areas, users may enjoy the higher speed benefit (and lower latency).

mmWave 5G are mostly for IoT communications (close range), or communications between access points. Their ultra short range is not ideal for regular roaming handsets.

 

[LonestarOne]

No one needs 5G. Or Internet access, or a mobile phone, or even electricity. But people want things that will make their lives better.

 

[rui no onna]

Not sure what you do with your phone because you didn't mention it, but for me it's hard to see how phone calls will be faster, text messages will be faster and emails will be faster. I mean, those things all go at the speed they go and whether I'm on 1xRTT, 3G, LTE, or 5G it's hard to see how you can make them 'faster'.

Will 5G mean I'm a speed talker on phone calls?

I agree with phone calls and regular SMS but emails have gotten fancy enough (with images, attchments, etc) that they download faster when you have faster internet connection.

From experience (at work site), Verizon's great. With normal mobile use, feels like I'm on my home wi-fi most of the time.

AT&T is noticeably slower loading emails, websites, etc. I can watch streaming video but it often gives me issues when scrubbing (fast forward or rewind). Sometimes, it would time out while fetching email with the iOS Mail app and I'd get "This message is not available" or something.

T-Mobile can veer down towards unusable levels (e.g. like the 2G level speeds above).