#5G VS 4G UPGRADE#

(See the column How Fast Wll 5G Really Be ? to get full explanations of how these technologies can enable faster 5G networks.) Practically speaking, this means that as carriers upgrade their networks, the download speeds will go up, even on the first-generation 5G devices that carriers are offering with these services. More specifically, there are a number of capabilities, including Carrier Aggregation, Dual Connectivity, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, MIMO and more, that aren’t being fully leveraged (or even used at all) in these early 5G implementations and that can help overcome some of the limitations of smaller bandwidth channels at lower frequencies.

The truth is, it’s the early days in the 5G world, and nationwide cellular network upgrades take a long time. Admittedly, a lot of people probably aren’t going to buy into this early 5G reality, but technologically speaking, these aren’t empty promises. To answer the obvious question of why even bother, it all boils down to betting on the future and trusting that carriers can deliver on the promise of 5G. In AT&T’s case, at least they won’t be charging extra for 5G service if you sign up for one of their new unlimited data plans, but that’s not likely to satisfy most people. Needless to say, that’s likely going to be both disappointing and confusing to a lot of people.

“Some 5G services will not be any faster, and could potentially be even slower, than some of the fastest 4G LTE services.” For AT&T’s forthcoming low-band 5G service, for example, they have publicly said to expect performance similar to their 5Ge (that is, most advanced 4G) service when it first launches. Yes, you read that right-in some situations, 5G could actually be slower than 4G in early implementations. ) As a result, some 5G services will not be any faster, and could potentially be even slower, than some of the fastest 4G LTE services. (See How Fast Will 5G Really Be? for a detailed explanation of the factors that influence download speeds. In the case of 5G service that leverages sub-6 GHz frequencies, particularly what’s called the “low-band” (below 1 GHz) frequencies, including AT&T’s newly announced 5G service at 850 MHz and the new 600 MHz service that T-Mobile has been advertising, there are some challenges due to the width of the transmission channels that are available at those frequencies.

5g vs 4g