Rukbat
Retired Moderator
5G will look like 4G to the user. I suspect that 6G will be about the same.
Look, we've about reached the limit in speed for the moment. The internet is running at about 5mbps for any decent connection. So you have a phone that can do 80mbps downloads. From a nearby server with one note between you and it, Downloading from someone's $50 phone on an internet connection if Africa, part of which is 2 pieces of baling wire strung on trees on glass insulators, isn't going to give you a 2GB file in minutes - he's only uploading it to you at 40kbps (if you're lucky). So the packets come to you from your carrier at 80mbps - every once in a while, because the carrier has to wait until one arrives before they can send it to you.
Now we'll go to 200mbps. That's great - but unless you have a 200mbps 6G router and you're transferring files from one phone to another, both connected to that router - and they make the phone capable of saving a file at 200mbps, it's not going to improve much.
A TCP/IP connection is only as fast as the slowest point in the path.
How come a beat up, falling apart, old Model T and a brand new, tuned-to-the-air-as-it-is-at-the-moment Porsche go the same speed in a traffic jam due to a major accident 100 feet in front of them, while traffic just past that point is doing 80? It's the same deal. Traffic on the internet does the same thing. The internet was designed for eventually, not immediately. The original idea was that, in the event of nuclear war (we actually worried about that in the 50s - schools had "drop and cover" drills - as if that would have saved us, but we'd feel as if we were doing something as we died), the IRS could still collect taxes from those companies that still existed. So if a 300 mile wide swath of the entire US and Canada was unpassable, internet traffic would go from DC East to Europe, Asia and eventually get to California.
Sure, technology moves on, and you can have a real-time chat even in email today - and a video call. But that's not what it was designed for, and increasing the speed beyond reality won't help. (I was recently upgraded from 30mbps to 150mbps, and this desktop is connected to the router by Ethernet, And you know what? I haven't noticed any change in my download or web connections speeds. Oh sure, Ookla reports a much higher speed (with higher latency, yet). But in actual use? If I had to pay for the upgrade, I wouldn't have. 150mbps? I could easily do 30 full-bandwidth video streams at a time. And I live alone.
So when we get 6G, the internet won't be fast enough for most people to notice any change. (Maybe they'll invent services that eat 50mbps, and we;ll still be able to make a video call while doing whatever service that is. But with the current internet, and current type apps? I wouldn't pay $1 to update to a phone just like mine but with 5G. 6G? I don't think I'll live to see the internet get that fast.
But it's great selling hype, isn't it?
Look, we've about reached the limit in speed for the moment. The internet is running at about 5mbps for any decent connection. So you have a phone that can do 80mbps downloads. From a nearby server with one note between you and it, Downloading from someone's $50 phone on an internet connection if Africa, part of which is 2 pieces of baling wire strung on trees on glass insulators, isn't going to give you a 2GB file in minutes - he's only uploading it to you at 40kbps (if you're lucky). So the packets come to you from your carrier at 80mbps - every once in a while, because the carrier has to wait until one arrives before they can send it to you.
Now we'll go to 200mbps. That's great - but unless you have a 200mbps 6G router and you're transferring files from one phone to another, both connected to that router - and they make the phone capable of saving a file at 200mbps, it's not going to improve much.
A TCP/IP connection is only as fast as the slowest point in the path.
How come a beat up, falling apart, old Model T and a brand new, tuned-to-the-air-as-it-is-at-the-moment Porsche go the same speed in a traffic jam due to a major accident 100 feet in front of them, while traffic just past that point is doing 80? It's the same deal. Traffic on the internet does the same thing. The internet was designed for eventually, not immediately. The original idea was that, in the event of nuclear war (we actually worried about that in the 50s - schools had "drop and cover" drills - as if that would have saved us, but we'd feel as if we were doing something as we died), the IRS could still collect taxes from those companies that still existed. So if a 300 mile wide swath of the entire US and Canada was unpassable, internet traffic would go from DC East to Europe, Asia and eventually get to California.
Sure, technology moves on, and you can have a real-time chat even in email today - and a video call. But that's not what it was designed for, and increasing the speed beyond reality won't help. (I was recently upgraded from 30mbps to 150mbps, and this desktop is connected to the router by Ethernet, And you know what? I haven't noticed any change in my download or web connections speeds. Oh sure, Ookla reports a much higher speed (with higher latency, yet). But in actual use? If I had to pay for the upgrade, I wouldn't have. 150mbps? I could easily do 30 full-bandwidth video streams at a time. And I live alone.
So when we get 6G, the internet won't be fast enough for most people to notice any change. (Maybe they'll invent services that eat 50mbps, and we;ll still be able to make a video call while doing whatever service that is. But with the current internet, and current type apps? I wouldn't pay $1 to update to a phone just like mine but with 5G. 6G? I don't think I'll live to see the internet get that fast.
But it's great selling hype, isn't it?
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