5G speeds? What's the deal?

[BigMosley]

So I went into town and I noticed the 5G icon popped up, I am on T-Mobile. I ran a speed test and the numbers were pretty pathetic. I turned off the 5G bands in settings and the 4G speeds blew the 5G speeds out of the water. How can 5G take priority over 4G but the speeds are lower? How is this not a scam to sell phones with the "new technology" but it stinks? What even is the point of deploying 5G if it is slower than the previous technology?

 

[Talderon]

Meh, it's hit and miss where I am at. I can get REALLY slow speeds or 100+mbit at times. Nothing outstanding but I think that Speedtest.net has some issues too. I have Gigabit Fiber at home and downloaded a 35GB game in just under 12 min, but I do a speed test from my PC and you'd think I was on something really slow.

 

[BigMosley]

Meh, it's hit and miss where I am at. I can get REALLY slow speeds or 100+mbit at times. Nothing outstanding but I think that Speedtest.net has some issues too. I have Gigabit Fiber at home and downloaded a 35GB game in just under 12 min, but I do a speed test from my PC and you'd think I was on something really slow.

I just think if the 5G speeds are slower than the 4G, it should make 4G a priority. Especially seeing how people are saying 5G is killing your battery.

 

[o4liberty]

I get 5G all over my area and the numbers vary on tmobile I can get between 30 and 140 depending on where I am at. They are working in my area all the time with new antennas going up on every tower. They are also working on merging sprint equipment with tmobile equipment.

 

[evan_2k]

I kinda feel the same way. I'm on TMO and 5G seems slow or lagging at times.

 

[BigMosley]

I kinda feel the same way. I'm on TMO and 5G seems slow or lagging at times.

I've decided to just turn off the 5G bands for now. I'm perfectly fine with Good 4G speeds over shotty 5G speeds and battery drain.

 

[Deke218]

Doesn't make much of a difference at home .

 

[Talderon]

See, I have WiFi6 at home, so I can go pretty far and still have WiFi... My car has WiFi (albeit LTE) so I am on WiFi when I am driving. The times I am not on WiFi, I am shopping or doing something else so the only real data I use is for Chatting and light web browsing (which is not too often)... I know that the WiFi in the car is good enough for my kid to play on his Switch with online games and whatnot, so meh, mobile speeds are not something I really am concerned with. LOL!

 

[CKwik240]

The more places I test this, the more inconsistent it is. But I haven't had any issues with speed in practical use using 5G and don't feel like my battery is taking a hit. So I'm leaving it on.

Not sure I'll ever run into this issue anytime soon, but I have experienced having to wait my turn on 4G LTE on crowded areas before, so I'm hoping if 5G in any area has it's own connection to the internet that I may not be waiting amongst other 4G LTE users. By the time this pandemic is over and I can be in a crowded area again, everyone might already have 5G phones by then. Lol.

I would agree it would be nice if the algorithm chose the fastest speed, but I'm not sure how simple that would be from a programming standpoint. Short of running a quick speed test on each available connection type, there's no way for the phone to be sure and that would probably make things a bit slower and eat up data. Next solution might be too have theoretical speeds weighted by signal strength to decide based on calculated speeds, but that doesn't guarantee the fastest speed every time. Switching based only on fastest type of connection is probably the simplest solution, but is likely what is getting is the results we have now. I had a WiFi extender once upon a time that has similar problems as it used signal strength to decide which to connect to. But the extender was effectively running at half it's rated speed at best. I think newer mesh systems are better at this, but just the other day, I had one of my extenders connect through another extender even though the primary router is in between them.

 

[Misterb]

Lol. Is this fast enough for you? Noticed I had 5G for the first time and decided to run a speed test.

 

[BigMosley]

Lol. Is this fast enough for you? Noticed I had 5G for the first time and decided to run a speed test.

Uh yeah lol

 

[TMavC5]

Lol. Is this fast enough for you? Noticed I had 5G for the first time and decided to run a speed test.

Holy $h1t speed... LOL

 

[bhatech]

Lol. Is this fast enough for you? Noticed I had 5G for the first time and decided to run a speed test.

Ha Verizon mmwave ... Did you have to stand under the mmwave antenna

Nice speeds !!!

 

[stackberry369]

See, I have WiFi6 at home, so I can go pretty far and still have WiFi... My car has WiFi (albeit LTE) so I am on WiFi when I am driving. The times I am not on WiFi, I am shopping or doing something else so the only real data I use is for Chatting and light web browsing (which is not too often)... I know that the WiFi in the car is good enough for my kid to play on his Switch with online games and whatnot, so meh, mobile speeds are not something I really am concerned with. LOL!

Do you share your car wifi with other people not in your car while driving?

 

[stackberry369]

Lol. Is this fast enough for you? Noticed I had 5G for the first time and decided to run a speed test.

2 GB of data used for that test?

 

[tadpoles]

2 GB of data used for that test?

If it's unlimited.... why not? ...I have AT&T...my speeds will never be impressive, despite their marketing.

 

[recDNA]

If it's unlimited.... why not? ...I have AT&T...my speeds will never be impressive, despite their marketing.

AFAIK there is no such thing as unlimited. There is some limit to the unlimited plan (then they throttle you) but it must be more than mine if you can blow off 2gb like it's nothing! LOL

 

[Misterb]

Ha Verizon mmwave ... Did you have to stand under the mmwave antenna

Nice speeds !!!

Lol. Who knows. I was in the parking lot of Home Depot sitting in my truck, waiting for the forklift to bring out some stuff I ordered

 

[msm0511]

Ha Verizon mmwave ... Did you have to stand under the mmwave antenna

Nice speeds !!!

Turn 180 degrees, and poof it disappears. LOL

 

[J Dubbs]

Lol. Is this fast enough for you? Noticed I had 5G for the first time and decided to run a speed test.

Man you are going to blast through data so quick they'll be throttling you almost immediately :O That's the problem with giving people new features they don't really need... it's just a marketing ploy to get more money and doesn't really do much for us end users :-[