An explanation of 5G

[agesilaus]

I was surprised to see Sabine Hossenfelder doing this since she usually does physics but she does a thourogh job of this subject. Apparently there is a major fuss about 5G with people destroying 5G antennas and such. You need to stick with this video to get to the most interesting part. For one thing she points out that 5G antennas need to be about 100 meters apart to work in the high band. Not something which we are going to see in rural America. Remember Europe has much denser population. But here it is: 5G hazards explained

[jcussen]

1 hour ago, agesilaus said:

I was surprised to see Sabine Hossenfelder doing this since she usually does physics but she does a thourogh job of this subject. Apparently there is a major fuss about 5G with people destroying 5G antennas and such. You need to stick with this video to get to the most interesting part. For one thing she points out that 5G antennas need to be about 100 meters apart to work in the high band. Not something which we are going to see in rural America. Remember Europe has much denser population. But here it is: 5G hazards explained

Interesting, but agree that antennas 100 meters apart is not feasible for most of non urban America.

[docj]

2 hours ago, jcussen said:

Interesting, but agree that antennas 100 meters apart is not feasible for most of non urban America

That's why most of the 5G currently being discussed is NOT the millimeter wave 5G that is better suited to high density urban locations.  Most of what the "Big Three" carriers have been talking about lately is what is known as Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) 5G and it involves using a portion of the 4G spectrum for 5G transmission. The downside is that the speeds aren't as high as what you might have expected for 5G but you'll have service a lot sooner.  The newer phones such as the iPhone 12 and the Pixel 5 can receive both mmwave and DSS 5G.

Here's an article that describes DSS 5G in more detail: DSS 5G explained

[jcussen]

14 minutes ago, docj said:

That's why most of the 5G currently being discussed is NOT the millimeter wave 5G that is better suited to high density urban locations.  Most of what the "Big Three" carriers have been talking about lately is what is known as Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) 5G and it involves using a portion of the 4G spectrum for 5G transmission. The downside is that the speeds aren't as high as what you might have expected for 5G but you'll have service a lot sooner.  The newer phones such as the iPhone 12 and the Pixel 5 can receive both mmwave and DSS 5G.

Here's an article that describes DSS 5G in more detail: DSS 5G explained

Appears to be an advancement on the current 4G LTE network as it uses the same antennas, etc. as the existing networks. Appears you will need a hardware change anyway on your phone though even if the frequencies are the same. How much faster is the DSS 5G over 4G LTE?

[docj]

On 12/19/2020 at 4:19 PM, jcussen said:

 How much faster is the DSS 5G over 4G LTE?

Here's a chart that is illustrative of the differences between "real 5G" and DSS 5G.  Although the chart is a year old, the data is still reasonably current.
 

The bars on the left are typical of the speeds that can be achieved with mm wave 5G.  The yellow bar is the sort of speed that can be realized when using what some people call "less than 5GHz 5G".  And the two bars on the right are typical of "low frequency 5G".  Considering that I recently measured a 4G download speed of ~130 Mbps with my Pixel 5, DSS 5G won't offer all that much of an improvement, at least, not at first.

Edited February 14, 2023 by docj

[jcussen]

On 12/19/2020 at 4:31 PM, docj said:

Here's a chart that is illustrative of the differences between "real 5G" and DSS 5G.  Although the chart is a year old, the data is still reasonably current.

 

The bars on the left are typical of the speeds that can be achieved with mm wave 5G.  The yellow bar is the sort of speed that can be realized when using what some people call "less than 5GHz 5G".  And the two bars on the right are typical of "low frequency 5G".  Considering that I recently measured a 4G download speed of ~130 Mbps with my Pixel 5, DSS 5G won't offer all that much of an improvement, at least, not at first.

About 40 miles south of houston and just got a Samsung Flip 5G, not sure if model of phone make a lot of difference, but my wifes Moto Z got 10500 mbps download on 4G LTE, and I got 21000 mbps on my Flip 5G, but Had to move outside to get that speed, otherwise phone would change between 4G and 5G.