4G And 5G Information

Alexzee

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After spending more than a week doing research on what new phone to purchase I found good information of the FCC's website.


Additional research and finding the same answer over and over again 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is good for at least another 10 years.


Android 13 is the current version at this time and some of those phones that are 5G are pretty pricey.
 


Sometimes having a phone that is compatible with older technology can work in your favor. Back in the day, I attended large conferences where the conference's 3G network was jammed and impossible to use, but nobody noticed that EDGE (2G) was also available. All I had to do was disable 3G on my phone and it automatically switched to using EDGE.

Even though EDGE offered much lower performance than 3G, EDGE works very well when you are the only person using it. I remember the looks on people's faces when would notice that my phone was working well and could load web pages very quickly. You could see the quizzical look on their faces as they walked by, wondering how I was doing it.
 
Where I live, we don't even get 4g, we can get a reasonable 3g signal in one room, [UK 2G is due to be switched off in the next couple of years]
 
LOL I am just barely within range (about 25 miles or 40ish km) of exactly one tower. I'm ~24 miles from the village by road. It's less than 25 miles 'as the crow flies'. I live with maybe a 2.5 mb/sec download speed. It's enough to stream 720p and browse at the same time, which is adequate for most everything but makes downloading large files a bit of a scheduling chore.

I had DSL. They made me angry. I have a satellite connection, but that's pretty limited so the missus uses that connection. She could tether her phone and we'd just eat the costs, but she just uses her phone.
 
I noticed my connection running much, much faster than normal. It's pretty cloudy, which might have something to do with the signal propagation - but I'm not sure if the signal strength is strong enough for the atmosphere to impact it much. (Someone here, probably a ham, would know more than I do.)

Either way, I decided to test:

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That's what the upload always looks like. Yeah... I actually live within these constraints quite nicely. The download speed is usually 20% of that number, give or take.
 
LOL I am just barely within range (about 25 miles or 40ish km) of exactly one tower. I'm ~24 miles from the village by road. It's less than 25 miles 'as the crow flies'. I live with maybe a 2.5 mb/sec download speed. It's enough to stream 720p and browse at the same time, which is adequate for most everything but makes downloading large files a bit of a scheduling chore.

I had DSL. They made me angry. I have a satellite connection, but that's pretty limited so the missus uses that connection. She could tether her phone and we'd just eat the costs, but she just uses her phone.
5G is available in certain parts of the county but not here yet:-
Some of those 5G phones are over the top IMO with the prices.

My download is 37.75 Mbps and the 11.66 Mbps--

Like you I had DSL but over time the provider completely cut most of the area off. Then DSL wasn't available anymore.
What a way to treat customers!

Everything here is Xfinity (cable) now.

Spent almost the whole afternoon trying to find the right phone.
Tracfone and other retail companies don't show online in the specs of what version of Android is on the phone. And some don't show the RAM or exact model # either. I had to do separate searches to find out the info. <or> chat Live with a Tracfone rep.
 
5G is available in certain parts of the county but not here yet:-

It'll be a long time before 5G hits my area.

It's okay. You should see my view from the front balcony. It's a trade I'm okay with.
 
In my area 5G is available and I have a 5G mobile phone but I use 4G why ? Because 5G cost a truck load more cash.
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Anyway according to two phone apps my download speed is about 130 mbps on one and 165 mbps on the other which is more than my broadband which is only 100 mbps but far more expensive what a joke.
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In my area 5G is available and I have a 5G mobile phone but I use 4G why ? Because 5G cost a truck load more cash.
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Anyway according to two phone apps my download speed is about 130 mbps on one and 165 mbps on the other which is more than my broadband which is only 100 mbps but far more expensive what a joke.
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It's a shame that company's charge their customers such high fees just for things to work.
We are inundated with a fee for this and a fee for that.
A joke indeed for 100 mbps!
 
Here's what 5G plans cost in Australia...heart attack time...
https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/best-5G-phone-plans
https://www.reviews.org/au/mobile/best-5g-phone-plans/

I have a Samsung Galaxy phone (never apple) and using 4G which costs me $A15.80 per month...I get unlimited calls...texts and 6GB of data which is just what I need.
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Mobile phones have always been a rip-off...when they first came out phone companies charged a connection fee and 80 to 90 cents per minute...so nothing has changed but we now have more phone companies to get a better deal sometimes.
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5G phones and broadband modems are supported here but FTTP and a VoIP service is much preferred. A cheap PAYG flip-phone with a 2MP camera for emergency use is sufficient for me, I wouldn't use a smartphone often enough to justify any extra costs.
 
A cheap PAYG flip-phone with a 2MP camera for emergency use is sufficient for me,
The Pendle witch has a basic phone, but it's 2G so won't be of much use in a year or so, I have got my first [reused] Iphone 7, still trying to learn how it works, It took me 4 weeks to install my own ringtone, after trying everything i could find on the net, In the end I resorted to picking up a cheap second-hand 30gb laptop hard-drive and putting Windows 7 [trial licence for 28 days] on it, to put my ringtone on,
Neither of us are Heavey users, so we have PAG on GIF GAF
 
When my new Moto G Stylus arrives I'll let you guys know.

Free shipping is always nice-
 
I expect cheap 4G basic non-smartphones will become available before the big 2G/3G switch off. Don't want a Google or Apple spy device so if the worst happens, an alternative may be a de-googled or linux smartphone.
 
I should mention that the phone I'm using as a hotspot is a contract that I have had for years.

Many years ago, the mobile carrier offered a truly unlimited plan. No, it's not X amount of higher speed data and then you're a lower priority, it's a truly unlimited plan.

They've tried for years to get me to change my contract. I have to buy my own phone and activate it. I can't do anything that'd change the contract.

There are some fine print clauses, but the only one that is important to me is that I have to also use it as a phone. Meaning, I make a couple of phone calls every month to an automated system and just walk away 'cause it'll end the call when the automated system terminates the call. This way, it's being used as a phone.

They refuse to let me add additional people on the plan. They do let me change my number.

Pay attention to the wireless data (the ethernet is when I'm connected to satellite) and consider that this isn't the only computer I use. This isn't even the computer I use the most - but it might be the one that uses the most bandwidth (if that makes sense) as I do different things on different devices.

kgiii@kgiii-lmde: ~_021.png


I probably used something like 600 GB of bandwidth in the month of April.

I'm pretty sure the company hates me. I'll keep this contract until something better comes along - but I have had this contract since around 2005. Back then, unlimited data didn't really add up to all that much.
 
I would hold
I should mention that the phone I'm using as a hotspot is a contract that I have had for years.

Many years ago, the mobile carrier offered a truly unlimited plan. No, it's not X amount of higher speed data and then you're a lower priority, it's a truly unlimited plan.

They've tried for years to get me to change my contract. I have to buy my own phone and activate it. I can't do anything that'd change the contract.

There are some fine print clauses, but the only one that is important to me is that I have to also use it as a phone. Meaning, I make a couple of phone calls every month to an automated system and just walk away 'cause it'll end the call when the automated system terminates the call. This way, it's being used as a phone.

They refuse to let me add additional people on the plan. They do let me change my number.

Pay attention to the wireless data (the ethernet is when I'm connected to satellite) and consider that this isn't the only computer I use. This isn't even the computer I use the most - but it might be the one that uses the most bandwidth (if that makes sense) as I do different things on different devices.

View attachment 15681

I probably used something like 600 GB of bandwidth in the month of April.

I'm pretty sure the company hates me. I'll keep this contract until something better comes along - but I have had this contract since around 2005. Back then, unlimited data didn't really add up to all that much.
I'd keep the contract too until you find something better.

Shame there are so many games being played. It's really annoying!
 
I'd keep the contract too until you find something better.

Yup. I'm kinda surprised that they don't just cancel the contract.

I don't have regular television (the satellite connection is just the internet and a phone line) and constantly stream something.
 
Here are some 4G phone plans...
https://www.canstarblue.com.au/phone/australias-cheapest-mobile-phone-plans/
sounds good but add that to my broadband and it's not so cheap.

About 8 years ago I had a nice Samsung Galaxy 2G smart phone...got a text from my carrier saying 2G will be turned off soon and you'll need to buy a new phone...I thought this was BS but it wasn't.
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I when to use the phone and it was dead...had to race out and buy a 3G phone stupid me. I never had the net on my phone till about 3 years ago when we had to sign in to everywhere with that QR code thing for covid...of cause we don't do that now.
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Yup. I'm kinda surprised that they don't just cancel the contract.

I don't have regular television (the satellite connection is just the internet and a phone line) and constantly stream something.
I'm surprised too:-
I don't really watch television anymore. Netflix once a week if that.
 
Here are some 4G phone plans...
https://www.canstarblue.com.au/phone/australias-cheapest-mobile-phone-plans/
sounds good but add that to my broadband and it's not so cheap.

About 8 years ago I had a nice Samsung Galaxy 2G smart phone...got a text from my carrier saying 2G will be turned off soon and you'll need to buy a new phone...I thought this was BS but it wasn't.
m1506.gif


I when to use the phone and it was dead...had to race out and buy a 3G phone stupid me. I never had the net on my phone till about 3 years ago when we had to sign in to everywhere with that QR code thing for covid...of cause we don't do that now.
m1213.gif
$55.00 for 150GB's? That's 1/2 of the grocery bill for me!

How much notice did your carrier give you?
 

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