Over the years, we’ve been trained to believe that newer tech is always better tech. 3G was better than 2G, and 4G was better than 3G. We were told that LTE was even newer than 4G so that had to be better as well. Yet, in some cases, we’ve heard over the years that 5G was not as good as LTE even though it was supposed to be better.
For several years, there’s been a series of urban legends that linked 5G to a number of different health and security concerns. Although I don’t claim to be a medical or surveillance expert, there’s no reason to believe 5G is anything more than just a way for cell phones to communicate. I go into more detail here.
5G was designed from the ground up to work with the way people actually use their phones. It’s not about voice calls. It’s about internet access. So, 5G was built to treat voice calls like internet access. Older standards like 3G treated internet access like voice calls, sort of the way dial-up modems worked. 4G and LTE could do either.
The goal of 5G was to provide a smoother and more effective way for information to flow using the cellular system. It was imagined that 5G connections could be used for self-driving cars, remote surgeries, and a lot of other stuff that’s still science fiction. today we mostly use 5G for the same thing we used 4G/LTE for… doomscrolling our social media.
While 5G can (and does) use the same cellular frequencies that we’ve used in the US for decades, it also can use higher frequencies that were originally intended for satellite television. Those higher frequencies can carry a lot more information, which is important if your socials are full of videos.
There are times when you’ll see multiple bars on your phone and you still can’t get out to the internet. Maybe it seems like it happens more now or it happens more since you got a 5G phone. That’s not completely untrue, but it’s also probably not as true as you think.
5G is a more complex system than 3G or 4G/LTE. But, it often uses cell towers that were designed for those simpler systems. That sometimes means the towers aren’t quite as effective as they should be if you’re further from them. That can be frustrating if you think you should be able to go online and you can’t.
Making matters worse is the bar measurement on your phone. I’ve said it before: those bars really don’t mean anything. They’re measuring something to be sure, but with over a dozen radios in your phone, it’s hard to know exactly what they’re measuring, and they don’t necessarily make a lot of difference in your ability to call or browse. It’s even worse if you have an iPhone, since as I’ve said repeatedly, the phone’s built-in field test mode is broken about as often as it works.
The first thing you can do is turn off 5G and see if things improve. The way to do this is different on every phone.Generally you go into settings first. Look for something like “Cellular Data.” This will generally let you change to 4G/LTE only mode. If your phone behaves better, leave it that way.
You can try calling your cell phone company. This sometimes works. It worked for me just the other day. But be prepared to offer personal information like your location so they can figure out what the issue is. Sometimes they can make changes to a tower so that it performs better.
Right now, no one is talking about 6G, despite 5G being part of our lives for about five years now. The focus now is on improving speed and reliability of 5G and opening up towers in those higher frequency ranges that allow for those incredible speeds. I think that’s as it should be. I don’t think we’re at the point where 6G is really something we need to talk about.
The post Can 5G cellular actually be worse than LTE cellular? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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Before I even start…
For several years, there’s been a series of urban legends that linked 5G to a number of different health and security concerns. Although I don’t claim to be a medical or surveillance expert, there’s no reason to believe 5G is anything more than just a way for cell phones to communicate. I go into more detail here.
5G is different from all previous cellular standards
5G was designed from the ground up to work with the way people actually use their phones. It’s not about voice calls. It’s about internet access. So, 5G was built to treat voice calls like internet access. Older standards like 3G treated internet access like voice calls, sort of the way dial-up modems worked. 4G and LTE could do either.
The goal of 5G was to provide a smoother and more effective way for information to flow using the cellular system. It was imagined that 5G connections could be used for self-driving cars, remote surgeries, and a lot of other stuff that’s still science fiction. today we mostly use 5G for the same thing we used 4G/LTE for… doomscrolling our social media.
While 5G can (and does) use the same cellular frequencies that we’ve used in the US for decades, it also can use higher frequencies that were originally intended for satellite television. Those higher frequencies can carry a lot more information, which is important if your socials are full of videos.
When 5G doesn’t feel as fast as 4G/LTE
There are times when you’ll see multiple bars on your phone and you still can’t get out to the internet. Maybe it seems like it happens more now or it happens more since you got a 5G phone. That’s not completely untrue, but it’s also probably not as true as you think.
5G is a more complex system than 3G or 4G/LTE. But, it often uses cell towers that were designed for those simpler systems. That sometimes means the towers aren’t quite as effective as they should be if you’re further from them. That can be frustrating if you think you should be able to go online and you can’t.
Making matters worse is the bar measurement on your phone. I’ve said it before: those bars really don’t mean anything. They’re measuring something to be sure, but with over a dozen radios in your phone, it’s hard to know exactly what they’re measuring, and they don’t necessarily make a lot of difference in your ability to call or browse. It’s even worse if you have an iPhone, since as I’ve said repeatedly, the phone’s built-in field test mode is broken about as often as it works.
What can you do if you think 5G isn’t working right?
The first thing you can do is turn off 5G and see if things improve. The way to do this is different on every phone.Generally you go into settings first. Look for something like “Cellular Data.” This will generally let you change to 4G/LTE only mode. If your phone behaves better, leave it that way.
You can try calling your cell phone company. This sometimes works. It worked for me just the other day. But be prepared to offer personal information like your location so they can figure out what the issue is. Sometimes they can make changes to a tower so that it performs better.
What does this say about 6G?
Right now, no one is talking about 6G, despite 5G being part of our lives for about five years now. The focus now is on improving speed and reliability of 5G and opening up towers in those higher frequency ranges that allow for those incredible speeds. I think that’s as it should be. I don’t think we’re at the point where 6G is really something we need to talk about.
The post Can 5G cellular actually be worse than LTE cellular? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
