5G

[admin]

I need to get a new phone but I am holding off until more 5G devices are available.

I wonder if phone plans will remain the same and include 5G, or 5G will be an additional feature that customers will be asked to pay for?

There is disruption happening in the industry and the old ways won’t apply anymore. I don’t want to pay the big carriers anymore since they no longer subsidize the devices anyway. I wonder how the MVNOs will be affected in terms of services.

TMobile is the most competitive. They just introduced a plan for seniors 55+.

T-Mobile Announces New Wireless Plan for Customers 55+

[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.
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

[FlyerInHi]

Right now if you have an old device that does not support LTE, you’re losing out because LTE comes standard.

Likewise, it would be foolish to buy a device that doesn’t support 5G if the higher sleep will come standard with the plans. I guess I will wait longer

Myriad, FYI, the pricing in the links you posted are somewhat old. Prices have been reduced.
Another MVNO is Teltik. It’s excellent for those who need to roam in Canada where mobile service is even more expensive than here.

[svelte]

[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.

[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.

[FlyerInHi]

[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.

[FlyerInHi]

Haha. I wanr 5G now I can think of so many applications.

I am now on a TMobile MVNO and I just love it. A friend said that coverage is not great in some areas. I’m like “good, there is no coverage for a reason. There are no paying customers to justify building an expensive network. ”

We need to get 3G everywhere before we start looking at 5G

North America is a big place and much of it has no service at all. How will 5G in New York or Chicago help?

https://www.androidcentral.com/how-bout-we-get-3g-everywhere-we-start-looking-5g

[gzz]

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.”

[Author]

Posts