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Consumers are Confused by 5G (strategyanalytics.com) 150
Awareness of 5G is relatively high in the US market but significant confusion exists. From a report: Overcoming the confusion among flagship buyers that believe they already have 5G is an industry created problem that needs to be addressed. A new report from the User Experience Strategies group at Strategy Analytics has assessed consumer awareness, expectations, and potential adoption of 5G and found that smartphone price was overwhelmingly the biggest factor for not buying 5G. Surveying consumers in the US via web-survey, key report findings include: Nearly two thirds of consumers surveyed claimed 'Basic Familiarity' or to be 'Very Familiar' with 5G, but of this nearly one fifth of consumers already thought they had 5G. While one in four consumers in the US listed 5G as an important feature, one in five didn't yet see a need for 5G, or wanted to wait until the benefits of 5G were proven before purchasing this technology. Apple fans in the US believe they are 5G leaders despite market reality. But when asked which brand they would buy for 5G capabilities, overall consumers ranked Samsung neck and neck with Apple as the most preferred.
The only thing I'm confused about (Score:5, Insightful)
Is why anyone thinks that this is better, that I should care, or that I should want to upgrade my phone for this.
Actually, I lied, I'm mostly not even confused about those things: this is a needless upgrade meant to line somebody's pockets. I guess I still don't know why I should want it, though.
Every time I read a story about 5G I hear about how hard it is to roll out, the insane number of towers or relays it'll require, and how it seems to be a complete and utter logistical nightmare.
Re:The only thing I'm confused about (Score:5, Funny)
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You just broke my sarcasm detector, friend!
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But new phones have better screens or can plug into a larger one. The big issue would be if phone companies still keep the ridiculous limits of a few gb each month then there wouldn't be any point in having the extra bandwidth since you'd hit the limit in a couple minutes
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In this day in age, who still doesn't have unlimited data on their phones?
Heck, I didn't even know they still offered limited data on phones.
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I am on wifi 95+% of the day. I switched to Google Fi about a year ago because it was cheaper for my use case, and also much better for international stuff, and I travel frequently. But, I pay for literally every byte I use. Still, my phone bill is usually only $40/month so its a win in the end.
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Most of the time my iPhoneX is using LTE.
Didn't AT&T out out some kind of fake 5G marketing crap a while ago?
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Didn't AT&T out out some kind of fake 5G marketing crap a while ago?
Right, AT&T's "5GE" is probably adding to the confusion.
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I am pretty unclear why we need this at this point. I never saturate my 4G. My phone pretty much reply to all network apps with little perceivable latency.
5G answer problems of new applications. But out current applications don't need more bandwidth or lower latency.
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The point of 5G isn't phones (except for the marketing to push people to upgrade to a new one). The looming issue for 4G is the exploding growth of IoT devices and their need to communicate. There are already more IoT devices in use than there are humans on Earth, there will probably be 20 billion of them by this time next year. 4G networks can't handle that amount of traffic, even if most of them only transmit when needed.
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So you're saying 5G is for IOT infrastructure, and not for people's phones.
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Congratulations! You've got it! Phones will see some benefit, principally that the network won't be saturated by non-phone traffic.
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So you're saying 5G is for IOT infrastructure, and not for people's phones.
Yes. Why do you think their primary goal was to reduce airwave congestion and increase subscriber count? I mean that has dramatic knock on benefits to phone users, but that's not the purpose of the rollout.
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How many of those IoT devices need their own data plan and who's paying for it?
Re:The only thing I'm confused about (Score:4, Interesting)
I never saturate my 4G.
So you've never been in a public place with a large group of people like a football stadium or a concert. That's why you think you've never saturated your 4G link? 5G isn't about speed to your device (that is simply a feature from the mm-band spectrum that 5G is *also* capable of). There's a metric fuckton* of changes under the hood between 4G and 5G that dramatically improve QoS, especially as subscriber counts on a tower rise.
*metric fucktons are like imperial fucktons except when you divide them by the speed of light you get something I pulled from my behind.
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So what you are saying is that like increasing highway lanes, it won't help bandwidth for long as the number of users will just increase to fill all those lanes as well as moving the choke points to a different location and increase our taxes or introduce new tolls.
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Actually, I lied, I'm mostly not even confused about those things: this is a needless upgrade meant to line somebody's pockets.
Every time I read a story about 5G I hear about how hard it is to roll out, the insane number of towers or relays it'll require
There's a reason for this. It's because you are confused about what 5G actually is.
Stupid consumers (Score:2)
Can't they see its a whole G more than the last? That is their signal to consume not ask questions.
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They should just skip straight to "Infinity G" .... It's Gs all the way down!
It's a distraction (Score:3)
Good service, such as coverage, customer care, and infrastructure support, can be had in 4g and below. Newer technology alone doesn't improve those. 5g may provide the potential for improving those, but if the service provider doesn't put in the necessary elbow grease, it's not an improvement from a consumer's perspective.
It's comparable to giving a better programming language to lousy programmers: you'll still get lousy code.
Not just consumers ... (Score:5, Informative)
Consumers are Confused by 5G
So is AT&T [att.com]
5G Evolution is our first step on the road to 5G. We’re starting by enabling faster speeds on our existing LTE network—up to 2x faster than standard LTE.
Dear AT&T, Faster 4G / LTE is *not* 5G. Your tech should be called 4G Evolution.
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So completely impractical! (Score:2)
Where, outside, in a city, will you ever have line of sight to a base station??
Might aswell use wifi.
And rurally, with its tiny range for anything fast, it is even more unrealistic to ever deploy in a sensible fashion.
Where the hell are those "personal virtual base station"s we were promised, by the way? Those created from multiple normal ones via interference.
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Right now it wouldn't make a difference the closest area with 5G is 128 miles away and it took them about 5 years to get 4G into my area and even then it was spotty for a couple years. Most of the places I would enjoy traveling are probably not at the top of the list for 5G roll outs just like where I live.
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The reason the networks are upgrading to 5G isn't for their telephone customers, it's to support the 20+ billion IoT devices that will all need connectivity by this time next year.
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With 4G to 5G... uhm. *crickets*
The point of 5G is to enable more bandwidth in crowded locations like stadiums so that people in those locations can have a working connection, and for cellular-linked IoT devices which are increasing in number. It won't really make anything else better, but those are real things.
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Once upon a time, we had Embrace, extend, and extinguish [wikipedia.org].
This new trend should be called Obscure, Buy Time and Survive.
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I'm sure in places where 5G is already rolled out it's great but the honest truth is who needs a 5G capable phone if they don't live somewhere with service why waste the money now especially if you will be upgrading multiple times by the time 5G is actually rolled out in your area.
I would love to have 5G.. (Score:2)
I'd love to have 5G, but it's not going to be available to me for years. So why should I care?
the G spot (Score:2)
5G? (Score:5, Funny)
I finally caved in and bought a SIM to get 3G data, only six months ago. This means I should switch to 5G in... about a decade.
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I finally caved in and bought a SIM to get 3G data, only six months ago. This means I should switch to 5G in... about a decade.
Enjoy it, while it lasts:
- Verizon has already announced that it will end support for 3G devices on its network on Dec 31, 2019.
- AT&T stopped permitting new 3G devices from entering its certification lab in June of 2019. This means device manufacturers can no longer develop new devices with 3G AT&T network support. Industry analysts expect that AT&T will soon follow this up with an official announcement that it will shut down its 3G network support.
- T-Mobile CTO Nerville Ray told the Mobi
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I'm in Canada. Probably one of the few country on this planet that is worst than the USA in terms of cellular networks and monthly plans.
It needs to be tested first (Score:2)
Dangerous? (Score:2)
There's also 5G as in GHz (Score:2)
I've had to explain to many non-technical people that the "5G" on the AP name of some dual band routers is not the same thing as 5G in terms of cell phone radios.
5G[hz] Wifi (Score:2)
It doesn't help that 5G is also the branding some companies use for their 5Ghz Wifi products.
When it cannot be avoided (Score:2)
The time to adopt 5G will come when (a) you cannot buy a device that does not have it; and, (b) when the current device needs replacing. I place this time to be about the year 2030 or so. Otherwise it provides nothing of use that one does not already have.
We don't need 5G, or 4K HDTV for that matter (Score:5, Insightful)
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What do these things have in common? They aren't driven by the desire to innovate or improve end-user experience, they are driven by the need to continue profiting.
What we really need is an end-user performance benchmark. All I care about is performance that I can see in terms of the apps that I use. I don't care about bits per second unless that noticeably improves browser latency, total download time, buffering, etc. If the bottleneck is the server, my device's processor or memory, or the software, then the network speed could be infinite and my user experience wouldn't improve. Of course, the really practical benchmark is what my eyes can detect. If the benchm
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What do these things have in common? They aren't driven by the desire to innovate or improve end-user experience, they are driven by the need to continue profiting. Current HDTV is more than adequate unless you have a Jumbotron-sized TV -- which no one but a sports stadium has. 4G wireless is more than adequate; it's faster than many peoples' wired broadband service. All they're really after is making you toss your devices in the e-waste bin and buy an expensive new one, at a major profit to the manufacturer. That's all.
I really didn't need HDTV either, to be honest. Crappy writing and acting are not improved by getting to see every last body hair.
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You're looking at the wrong target market. You're right that there won't be many if any benefits for consumer telephone customers, but for IoT deployments. The estimated 20+ billion IoT devices that will be deployed by this time next year will swamp the 4G networks.
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This makes no sense whatsoever. Why on earth would an "Internet of Shit" device have a cellular data connection? The mind boggles. Perish the thought. And who is going to be PAYING for all this cellular network connectivity?
Clearly you have drunk the kool-aid!
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Do you intend to pull cable to every smart streetlamp, every traffic camera, every truck scale, every automated weather station, every fish counter, every vending machine, etc. etc. ? I hope not, and yes, the mind boggles at the amount of data this is all going to produce, all of which needs to be carried from Point A to Point B.
Who's paying for it? The cost savings from improved efficiencies. You don't need some poor college student sitting at a fish ladder all day counting fish, the driver doesn't have
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I see. So instead of a poor college student sitting at a fish ladder all day counting fish, you want to have that poor student starving to death and let the rotting corpse smell up the place worse than the fish? Same for the driver that is now at home starving to death because his job, which used to be full time, is now only 5 minutes per week, at the same hourly rate?
And you expect the "cost savings" to go anywhere other than executive bonuses? You are a naive one, aren't you?
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Maybe they can go work in the buggy whip factories.
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Actually competent engineers disagree.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view... [ieee.org]
San Diego’s installation of 3,200 smart streetlights is slightly behind schedule, but the city has already ordered more
So do medical professionals.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-... [ieee.org]
Startup Biobot Analytics monitors wastewater to identify at-risk neighborhoods
As do farmers.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view... [ieee.org]
Want a Really Hard Machine Learning Problem? Try Agriculture, Says John Deere Labs
Shipping companies, too.
https://spectrum.ieee.or [ieee.org]
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Whereas HDR is a much better improvement than 4K, I still also like 4K.
I have a 50 inch screen. I notice the diference.
I wear glasses , my eyes are not that good. I worry that people who cannot notice the difference are allowed to drive.
Still, same old.
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What do these things have in common?
I know this! There are cynical end users who have no fucking idea what the point of the technological development was in the first place just because they think it applies to their phone or their TV. (hint: it doesn't, and it doesn't).
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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My kingdom for a mod point.
Consumers are confused by a network cable (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't count the number of times I hear people I work with talking about wireless connectivity issues they're having at home. This is regardless of whether they work from home all the time or on a day or two depending on their schedule.
Invariably I tell them to plug a network cable into their router and then their machine so they won't have those problems. I get a blank stare, the kind you can wave your hand in front of and they don't blink. It's as if having a physical connection is foreign to them.
And yet, we're supposed to expect these same people to have the vaguest idea of what 5G is?
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I have met those people, they are the same people that put a fury pillow in their lap and place their laptop on it then are confused when it over heats and fan get's loud.
Upgrades when you don't follow everything. (Score:2)
Chances are we are getting scammed all the time and we don't know it.
To become an expert in something it takes 10,000 hours of practice in it. After 8th grade we normally begin to focus our studies in more of a narrow area and grows more and more narrower as we gain more education.
Society tells me as a consumer that I should know how ethically sourced my food is, all the nutrition specs in it. To go to the gym every day and exercise in a special way that is optimal. Knowing all the side effect of any medi
Of course they are (Score:3)
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Everything is not simple, news at ten.
FFS. anyone here who does not know that is probably dead and should stop posting.
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To be fair to consumers, it would appear that about 75% of Slashdot posters also have no idea what 5G is or what it's purpose is either.
5G Use Cases (Score:2)
5G won't ever be that big of a benefit for mobile cell service. It will ultimately become a needed platform once future technologies become embedded in our lives. These can include IoT, augmented reality, self driving cars, etc..
Here are some forward-looking use cases of 5G: https://www.sdxcentral.com/5g/... [sdxcentral.com]
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Lovely kool-aid, but all complete rubbish! Who exactly is going to pay for all this cellular connectivity? Not me, that is for sure. I doubt the Ford Motor Company will be paying for a cellular data service contract for each of the cars they sell either.
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Who exactly is going to pay for all this cellular connectivity?
You know that cellular connectivity is effectively free in much of the world right? I mean I spent $10 on a SIM card 9 months ago for a project and hasn't chewed through it's data limit, and I have a buying power of one, not the buying power of an IoT company.
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Actually it is a use case for cell services too, particularly in congested areas like sports arenas.
Forward Looking, Data Limits (Score:2)
The actual issue that will come about as we shift to 5G speeds, is that users will gobble up their data limits much more quickly, and start paying more for their "Unlimited" or "Truly Unlimited" plan when they get throttled back to 3G speeds for the last three weeks of the month.
The issue is similar to having Gigabit speeds at home, when you have a 1TB cap on your up/down data in a month. Telecoms in general are pushing us faster, so we can hit that data cap quicker and be forced to pay more to up the cap
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I have pointed that out on a couple occasions two and a half hours to download 1TB on a gigabit connection the cable sales guy that was trying to get me to upgrade had no idea.
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You make the errant assumption that greater bandwidth equals larger volume. While in fact this may be the case up to a point, it does not hold.
If you have a water pipe capable of delivering 8 oz of drinking water per day, you will only be able to consume 8 oz of water per day. The volume is limited by the bandwidth. As you upgrade your plumbing you will eventually reach the point at which it delivers the gallon per day that you can consume. Further upgrades in the bandwidth will not result in you consum
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See that's not how it works you have a bigger water pipe so now you plant a garden, get a pressure washer, washing machine, a dish washer, a freezer with a water filter and an ice maker, high capacity hot water heater, and a Jacuzzi.
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Not if it is a 5G Jacuzzi
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My Jacuzzi is 200G
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I wouldn't. You might however.
The surprising era of unwanted miracles (Score:2)
I just replaced my 4-year-old cell phone that won't take a charge any more (and nearly more to repair than replace-with-refurbished) with a refurbished one that is a slight downgrade.
It manages the bandwidth needed for communications and surfing and maps, so I'm about done with actual "needs". Watching TV on a phone is a bad joke except for 1-minute clips for humour.
I think the problem with 5G is a real lack of reason for it; what do you DO with that bandwidth, except watch video on a tiny screen? WiFi p
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I think the problem with 5G is a real lack of reason for it; what do you DO with that bandwidth, except watch video on a tiny screen? WiFi provides that in a lot of popular locations right now, but most people aren't using it. 5G would have a lot of people behind it if the trains and coffee shops of the world were filled with customers cranky that everybody was maxing out the wifi with all their coffee-shop video watching.
People would "know about 5G" because they were looking for solutions to a problem. They're not. Because they don't see a problem.
5G needs a killer app that requires it; hi-rez video does, but it's just not popular enough to add a hundred to your phone and tens of dollars a month to your mobile bill.
Aside from that: how many of the people who think they 'need' 5G realize that it comes at a cost of significantly reduced battery life and phones that run a lot hotter? In many areas, it seems like a solution looking for a problem.
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It manages the bandwidth needed for communications and surfing and maps, so I'm about done with actual "needs".
Bet you that you can't make a phone call from a football stadium.
You can with 5G.
Also 5G has a killer app, but you and your phone have nothing at all to do with it. There's a reason the primary goal of the standard was orders of magnitude increases in subscriber count per tower, and it's not because they expect everyone to buy 10 cell phones.
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Why would I want to make a phone call from a football stadium?
My 5G wifi works fine. (Score:2)
Summarize it with a slogan: 5G -- It's retarded. (Score:2)
5G ... passes through almost nothing, almost like light. ... Has a range almost as bad or even worse than wifi ... but is much slower than light.
5G -- The worst of all worlds!
Which, looking a how people buy SUVs and fixie bicycles and Apple jewelry, and generally nowadays bad is good, will proably make it wildly popular!
But still ...
5G -- Reach your data cap in under 10 seconds!
Or go with the former 4G slogan:
5G -- "Up to" means "Never"!
Consumers are confused by... (Score:3)
What are they confused about? (Score:2)
No one is confused (Score:2)
What people are confused about is the hype.
2G was crap, base 3G was bad, top end 3G and especially 4G is actually quite reasonable, if not damn near good.
It's very rare for me to complain about my throughput or latency anymore on my cell phone. Infact, often in Australia with only 20MBit home / work internet connections, if urgent, I switch to my cell phone for faster down or uploads.
5G is going to be faster (duh) and there's absoloutely nothing wrong with that, in time we will need 5G and I'm sure it uses
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So that when the grubbermint announces that they are going to make you pay a subsidy to the telco's to implement it, you will be all cheery and pay without protest.
at$t is really doing the confusing (Score:2)
at$t is really confusing their customers by replacing 4g with 5ge at the top of the phones. Customers who don't know think they are getting 5g.
Apple (Score:3)
Apple fans in the US believe they are 5G leaders despite market reality.
That's hilarious since Apple makes zero 5G devices.
Blame the SEC and the public (Score:2)
Investors react to quarterly profits so no company on the stock exchange can do anything long term â" especially given the consumers greed when it comes to getting service. Given that a majority of people are dumb, AT&T and other telcos were forced to put out confusing 5G info. You canâ(TM)t blame AT&T for being addicted to getting short term profits. The publics greed for phone services caused this. Iâ(TM)m sorry but you have to blame consumers and the public in general for being the
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Clearly many of them have studied radio transmissions or they wouldn't be claiming to be "very familiar" with either right?
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Everybody in the US has been lied to about what wireless versions we are using
Slight improvements to 2G (actually 2.5G) were sold as 3G, and it has been off kilter ever since
South Korea was installing UMTS in 2000 (with a planned 10MB/s), and the US responded by branding crappy 2.5 G specs as 3G
So, we will probably get UMTS-like speed (actual 3G) while being told we are getting 5G
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Stop perpetuating this bullshit.
In the US, it was pretty much universally true for 2G/Edge/3G/4G on all major carriers that you were basically 1 full step behind what the phone showed.
Outside of ATT, that shit stopped with "4G LTE". If your phone shows 4G LTE in the US, you're getting at least true 4G, and often much better than the baseline for 4G.
If your phone shows "5G" in the US, you're probably being lied to by ATT.
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Funny, you call my statement bullshit, and then confirm it...
FYI, 4G LTE is Long Term Evolution of 3G and not 4G [digitaltrends.com]
So basically... you agree. (Score:2)
Who is talking bullshit again? Please do tell us ...
Re:Well, they do have it (Score:4, Informative)
Or that the term "WiFi" doesn't actually stand for or mean anything. It was just a marketing term that mimics the success of HiFi in the audio world.
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FWIW, I don't use WiFi, but I did use a cordless phone. At one point I knew what frequency it operated on, but that wasn't important so I immediately forgot it. (FWIW, it started with either 5 or 2.5)
The operational characteristics were important, so I learned those. I don't have a frequency tester, so even if I remembered what the manufacturer claimed, I'd have no way of knowing whether it was correct.
So. Why should most people remember their WiFi frequencies? Why on earth would you expect them to?
P.S
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And looks flashy! Can't forget that most important of technology decisions . . .
[barf]
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No. A subset of techies. Personally, I'm a programmer, and I'll learn the stuff as I need to know it, and ignore it the rest of the time (and forget it if I don't use it).
As someone who has occasionally compiled his own Linux kernel, I think I qualify as a techie, but this stuff bores me. I'm much more interested in why I can't use the same wx calls from C++ as I can from Python. (Currently I've decided not to follow that up, as Python is quite adequate for GUI stuff, but it's annoying that I'm going to
Not really an argument though. (Score:2)
1. 5G basically is a shittier wifi. The range and wall penetration is exceptionally bad.
2. The "average" person is a medically certified mentally disabled person, by an sane standards. They get confused by tying their own shoes if even a lace lays the other way.
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