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They hype about 5G continues to build. Big wireless companies are touting their 5G plans as if they are actually a reality. Yes, some of the biggest cities in the US are getting 5G now or soon (including, it turns out, Des Moines - one of Verizon's first 20 test cities). But what the marketing hype is not telling the consumer is a cold, hard fact: today's 5G is an OUTDOOR wireless solution. It turns out that physics is getting in the way of bringing the "promised land" of 5G into your home or business, where most data is consumed. The high frequencies used to deliver 5G are not capable of penetrating walls, so a 5G customer's experience outdoors will end when they walk inside.
Bringing 5G indoors is another monumental challenge that has not been addressed. Will 5G radios be built into home gateways and WiFi routers? Or will consumers "get by" as they have for years with using WiFi indoors and cellular where signal is available? It's not clear. But these are all important facts to keep in mind when you're seeing the marketing hype.
2 Comments
Bob Geers
8/27/2019 08:16:14 am
That is so true for Verizon and AT&T. The new T-Mobile (with Sprint) have a different strategy. They are using 5G frequencies that do reach indoors. While it will be faster than 4G, it will not reach the speeds that Verizon and AT&T are touting. 8/28/2019 08:12:40 am
5G is marketed as having higher bandwidth ( consumer broadband ), lower latency ( autonomous vehicles ) and the ability for massive numbers of IoT devices. What is not in the marketing info is that each of those features uses different frequencies, so most likely only one of the three will be available to a given device at one time. So a gamer expecting both high bandwidth and low latency won't get both. The other part is the massive number of cells required. Those frequencies used for high bandwidth don't just have a problem with penetrating structures, there are distance issues as well. Leave a Reply. |
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