I have yet to see the use case for 5G with today’s technology and applications. There’s very few applications that need the bandwidth and the higher frequencies reduce the coverage area/antenna or need more towers. Eventually someone will figure something, but I don’t think it’s worth the cost at the consumer level yet.
I actually see a need for more satellite based Wi-Fi in areas not easily serviced by cell towers. That would improve service to way more people around the world than 5G will at the moment.

Thinking about switching to a MVNO when my 2 years for discounted phone ends.

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/verizon-mvnos
https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/att-mvnos
https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/t-mobile-mvnos

[quote=Myriad]I have yet to see the use case for 5G with today’s technology and applications. There’s very few applications that need the bandwidth and the higher frequencies reduce the coverage area/antenna or need more towers. Eventually someone will figure something, but I don’t think it’s worth the cost at the consumer level yet.
[/quote]

My research the last few months led me to the same conclusion.

I am about due a new phone, but will sit 5g out this time. Im not a bleeding edge beta tester type of guy in most situations. Got better things to do with my money.

[quote=spdrun]Just get a Moto E5 Play — removable battery (as Allah intended to have electronic devices to have), SD card for cloudfree usage, headphone jack, not some airy-fairy converter or Bluetooth junk.[/quote]

Thanks. I recommended it to my neighbor who is on fixed income and was paying through the nose to Verizon. It was about $70 on eBay. She had some kind of old Android.

Been thinking about this lately. I love the earnings and divvies on telcos, but I am concerned they will borrow a ton of money for 5G that few consumers will pay extra for.

Agree with the comments here about lack of a use case.

Verizon’s “benefits of 5G” page is technobabble about IoT, “good for first responders,” which is 1% of the population, and the only real positive is 5G supposedly won’t bog down in crowded areas. I do dislike how data speed gets very slow even in a busy strip mall and in downtown SF, and is awful in airports.

But Covid undermines this single selling point. And not sure this benefit is worth even $50 a year to 90% of the population.

I’d like the stock of a telco that says “We’re going to wait and see with 5G, and we’re comfortable with the risk of losing a small number of data hog customers because of this.”