The question of being 5G ready is NOT "Can I use it on my phone today?"
Rather it's "How long do I intend to keep this phone I'm buying today?" And, by extension: "Will I want to keep it after it is locked into an obsolete technology?"
For those planning on keeping their phone a year or maybe even two it's mostly a non-issue (except in resale value). But for those intending to keep their phones 3, 4 or 5 years, it is a very definite factor to consider.
5G promises to add more than speed -- it is said to be a game changer by adding functionality not possible today. But one of the things it could impact in a big way is cable -- especially for cord-cutters. Why pay a cable bill AND a cell phone bill if you could eliminate the cable the same as you eliminated your copper wire land line?
Apple was 'slow/late' to put 4G modems in their phones as well. They never explain any of their decisions, but the speculation was that they were waiting for a mature, low-power 4G modem. As far as sales goes, it didn't seem to hurt their sales then.
I have yet to see anyone explain how 5G will truly benefit the average cell phone user over existing 4G/LTE technology. 'low latency?' I'm not gaming on my phone and the network is the bottleneck. Faster speed? LTE is plenty fast enough. Replace my home broadband? It's going to be several years before my house in the suburbs of Mpls has 5G, and then the signals don't penetrate buildings well anyway so I'd have to get an antenna outside my house. Meaning 5G on my cell phone 5G would be useless.
If I get an iPhone Xs today, it will work just as well on all the 4G towers i 3 years as it does now. If I get 50% 4G signal, it's more than fast enough for me, so I have a hard time understanding how it would be considered obsolete.
It seems that you believe that 5G will be the sort of evolutionary change that LTE was -- more of the same, just faster. But that is not what industry insiders are predicting. They say it will be more of revolutionary change than an evolutionary one.
We shall see.
But, while we wait, I have no desire to lock myself into a loser's technology. Plus, when LTE rolled out people kept a phone 2 years. It was rare to keep one longer. Today that is no longer true. If I'm paying top dollar (well over $1K) for a smart phone I'm thinking 3-5 years down the road.
That’s what I keep asking. What exactly is this ‘revolutionary’ change? Everyone keeps gushing about how great it is but no one has any examples of how it’s going to make using my iphone any better. This makes me think that it’s a lot of tech-heads gushing about new technology just because it’s new and has better specs. I got over specs a long time ago.
There are potentially unlimited use cases for 5G going forward and they go way beyond phones.
This is one I read about years ago related to salmon farming. The idea being that a 5G equiped sensor for lice could be placed on each fish to track infestations in real time.
Another more mundane use is in logistics. For example there are plans for the port of Barcelona to go 5G for container logistics.
You might want to read up on it. But it's not just one thing: significant advances in communications tend to spawn leaps in the uses of technology: Look at what happened when cable replaced the dial up world of AOL's "You got mail!" or what T1 lines did for enterprise computing.
I might be too optimistic for 5G, but I don't think so.
The question of being 5G ready is NOT "Can I use it on my phone today?"
Rather it's "How long do I intend to keep this phone I'm buying today?" And, by extension: "Will I want to keep it after it is locked into an obsolete technology?"
For those planning on keeping their phone a year or maybe even two it's mostly a non-issue (except in resale value). But for those intending to keep their phones 3, 4 or 5 years, it is a very definite factor to consider.
5G promises to add more than speed -- it is said to be a game changer by adding functionality not possible today. But one of the things it could impact in a big way is cable -- especially for cord-cutters. Why pay a cable bill AND a cell phone bill if you could eliminate the cable the same as you eliminated your copper wire land line?
Apple was 'slow/late' to put 4G modems in their phones as well. They never explain any of their decisions, but the speculation was that they were waiting for a mature, low-power 4G modem. As far as sales goes, it didn't seem to hurt their sales then.
I have yet to see anyone explain how 5G will truly benefit the average cell phone user over existing 4G/LTE technology. 'low latency?' I'm not gaming on my phone and the network is the bottleneck. Faster speed? LTE is plenty fast enough. Replace my home broadband? It's going to be several years before my house in the suburbs of Mpls has 5G, and then the signals don't penetrate buildings well anyway so I'd have to get an antenna outside my house. Meaning 5G on my cell phone 5G would be useless.
If I get an iPhone Xs today, it will work just as well on all the 4G towers i 3 years as it does now. If I get 50% 4G signal, it's more than fast enough for me, so I have a hard time understanding how it would be considered obsolete.
It seems that you believe that 5G will be the sort of evolutionary change that LTE was -- more of the same, just faster. But that is not what industry insiders are predicting. They say it will be more of revolutionary change than an evolutionary one.
We shall see.
But, while we wait, I have no desire to lock myself into a loser's technology. Plus, when LTE rolled out people kept a phone 2 years. It was rare to keep one longer. Today that is no longer true. If I'm paying top dollar (well over $1K) for a smart phone I'm thinking 3-5 years down the road.
That’s what I keep asking. What exactly is this ‘revolutionary’ change? Everyone keeps gushing about how great it is but no one has any examples of how it’s going to make using my iphone any better. This makes me think that it’s a lot of tech-heads gushing about new technology just because it’s new and has better specs. I got over specs a long time ago.
There are potentially unlimited use cases for 5G going forward and they go way beyond phones.
This is one I read about years ago related to salmon farming. The idea being that a 5G equiped sensor for lice could be placed on each fish to track infestations in real time.
Another more mundane use is in logistics. For example there are plans for the port of Barcelona to go 5G for container logistics.
You might want to read up on it. But it's not just one thing: significant advances in communications tend to spawn leaps in the uses of technology: Look at what happened when cable replaced the dial up world of AOL's "You got mail!" or what T1 lines did for enterprise computing.
I might be too optimistic for 5G, but I don't think so.
Yes. Things that might read like science fiction today might become reality in a relatively short time.
The question of being 5G ready is NOT "Can I use it on my phone today?"
Rather it's "How long do I intend to keep this phone I'm buying today?" And, by extension: "Will I want to keep it after it is locked into an obsolete technology?"
For those planning on keeping their phone a year or maybe even two it's mostly a non-issue (except in resale value). But for those intending to keep their phones 3, 4 or 5 years, it is a very definite factor to consider.
5G promises to add more than speed -- it is said to be a game changer by adding functionality not possible today. But one of the things it could impact in a big way is cable -- especially for cord-cutters. Why pay a cable bill AND a cell phone bill if you could eliminate the cable the same as you eliminated your copper wire land line?
Apple was 'slow/late' to put 4G modems in their phones as well. They never explain any of their decisions, but the speculation was that they were waiting for a mature, low-power 4G modem. As far as sales goes, it didn't seem to hurt their sales then.
I have yet to see anyone explain how 5G will truly benefit the average cell phone user over existing 4G/LTE technology. 'low latency?' I'm not gaming on my phone and the network is the bottleneck. Faster speed? LTE is plenty fast enough. Replace my home broadband? It's going to be several years before my house in the suburbs of Mpls has 5G, and then the signals don't penetrate buildings well anyway so I'd have to get an antenna outside my house. Meaning 5G on my cell phone 5G would be useless.
If I get an iPhone Xs today, it will work just as well on all the 4G towers i 3 years as it does now. If I get 50% 4G signal, it's more than fast enough for me, so I have a hard time understanding how it would be considered obsolete.
It seems that you believe that 5G will be the sort of evolutionary change that LTE was -- more of the same, just faster. But that is not what industry insiders are predicting. They say it will be more of revolutionary change than an evolutionary one.
We shall see.
But, while we wait, I have no desire to lock myself into a loser's technology. Plus, when LTE rolled out people kept a phone 2 years. It was rare to keep one longer. Today that is no longer true. If I'm paying top dollar (well over $1K) for a smart phone I'm thinking 3-5 years down the road.
That’s what I keep asking. What exactly is this ‘revolutionary’ change? Everyone keeps gushing about how great it is but no one has any examples of how it’s going to make using my iphone any better. This makes me think that it’s a lot of tech-heads gushing about new technology just because it’s new and has better specs. I got over specs a long time ago.
There are potentially unlimited use cases for 5G going forward and they go way beyond phones.
This is one I read about years ago related to salmon farming. The idea being that a 5G equiped sensor for lice could be placed on each fish to track infestations in real time.
Another more mundane use is in logistics. For example there are plans for the port of Barcelona to go 5G for container logistics.
You might want to read up on it. But it's not just one thing: significant advances in communications tend to spawn leaps in the uses of technology: Look at what happened when cable replaced the dial up world of AOL's "You got mail!" or what T1 lines did for enterprise computing.
I might be too optimistic for 5G, but I don't think so.
Yes. Things that might read like science fiction today might become reality in a relatively short time.
Comments
But it's not just one thing: significant advances in communications tend to spawn leaps in the uses of technology: Look at what happened when cable replaced the dial up world of AOL's "You got mail!" or what T1 lines did for enterprise computing.
I might be too optimistic for 5G, but I don't think so.
https://www.gpsworld.com/rohde-schwarz-and-huawei-conduct-field-trials-for-5g-and-v2x-precision/
https://www.gpsworld.com/audi-airbus-and-italdesign-test-flying-taxi-concept/