I haven’t even bought a 5G phone yet. My carrier keeps threatening to cut 4G coverage in various areas, and has already axed 3G entirely, rendering large swathes of otherwise perfectly functional devices useless. So far my 4G Moto Z still works. For now.
At this point my conspiracy opinion that the constant “generation” changes are mostly to just force people to buy/lease new phones and devices. Even pokey old 4G has always been more than fast enough for all of my mobile internet activities. Hell, even 3G was.
I have no less than four otherwise flawlessly functional phones in a desk drawer that just won’t work with my cell carrier because they’ve either turned off 3G or discontinued the specific 4G bands those devices need.
The biggest problem with 3G/4G was capacity, not speed. Yes 4G is fast enough for almost anything, but it gets overloaded in crowded areas pretty quickly. With the increasing amount of smart devices that try to use the mobile network, 4G just doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in cities. 5G has a lot higher overall capacity than 4G and thus really was a necessary step.
If it was really necessary to completely axe 3G is a different question, but keeping the network when it’s barely in use by a few old phones is also not to be expected. Especially since it can be really hard to get any replacement parts for older tech.
I haven’t even bought a 5G phone yet. My carrier keeps threatening to cut 4G coverage in various areas, and has already axed 3G entirely, rendering large swathes of otherwise perfectly functional devices useless. So far my 4G Moto Z still works. For now.
At this point my conspiracy opinion that the constant “generation” changes are mostly to just force people to buy/lease new phones and devices. Even pokey old 4G has always been more than fast enough for all of my mobile internet activities. Hell, even 3G was.
I have no less than four otherwise flawlessly functional phones in a desk drawer that just won’t work with my cell carrier because they’ve either turned off 3G or discontinued the specific 4G bands those devices need.
The biggest problem with 3G/4G was capacity, not speed. Yes 4G is fast enough for almost anything, but it gets overloaded in crowded areas pretty quickly. With the increasing amount of smart devices that try to use the mobile network, 4G just doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in cities. 5G has a lot higher overall capacity than 4G and thus really was a necessary step.
If it was really necessary to completely axe 3G is a different question, but keeping the network when it’s barely in use by a few old phones is also not to be expected. Especially since it can be really hard to get any replacement parts for older tech.