How can one companies 5G be “better” than another? Doesn’t 5G refer to the speed/strength of the connection?
In: Technology
While 5G is suppose to be faster then 4G, the advantage 5G has is access to higher frequencies.
Think of frequencies as highways. The lower the frequency the less lanes it has, but what isn’t used to make the other lanes is used to make the highway longer. The cars on the highway is the data being sent to your phone. A 1 lane road 100 miles long (low frequency) can’t support as many cars at once, so it takes longer for 100 cars to travel on it. As the frequency increases more lanes are added, increases how many cars can travel at once, but it also makes the road shorter. So while 100 cars can travel quicker, then can no longer travel as fast.
5G adds support for really high frequencies that cell phones never really used before. Think of it like a 100 lane highway. Now those 100 cars can go at the same time, but the road is now only one mile. The trip is done way quicker, but now you gotta be real close.
Low band 5G will be faster then the 4G LTE already using those frequencies eventually (short answer on eventually, not enough lanes are being given to 5G to be noticeably faster in some cases), and high band 5G is unimaginably faster then anything your cell phone has ever done, but the frequency is so high, that if you can’t physically see the cell tower you will not be able to take advantage of the speed.
Latest Answers