{"id":619668,"date":"2023-03-19T09:48:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T14:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/19\/what-is-5g-speeds-coverage-comparisons-and-more\/"},"modified":"2023-03-19T09:48:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T14:48:47","slug":"what-is-5g-speeds-coverage-comparisons-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/19\/what-is-5g-speeds-coverage-comparisons-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"What is 5G? Speeds, coverage, comparisons, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s been years in the making, but 5G \u2014 the next big chapter in wireless technology \u2014 is finally approaching the mainstream. While we haven\u2019t yet reached the point where it\u2019s available everywhere, nearly all of the best smartphones<\/a> are 5G-capable these days, and you\u2019re far more likely to see a 5G icon lit up on your phone than not.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more to 5G than just a fancy new number, though. The technology has been considerably more complicated for carriers to roll out since it covers a much wider range of frequencies<\/a> than older 4G\/LTE technology, with different trade-offs for each. It\u2019s also a much farther-reaching wireless technology<\/a>, promising the kind of global connectivity that was once merely a dream found in futuristic sci-fi novels.<\/p>\n

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SOPA Images\/LightRocket\/Getty Image<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of this hype around 5G may leave you wondering exactly what to make of it, but the good news is that it\u2019s not as complicated for consumers as you may think. It ultimately comes down to knowing what 5G service is like where you live and work<\/a>, deciding on the best 5G phone, and picking the best 5G cell phone plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, with the powerful new capabilities offered by 5G networks, a deeper understanding of how it works can help you make the right decisions. Here\u2019s everything you need to know about 5G.<\/p>\n

<\/a>What is 5G?<\/h2>\n
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Mavenir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Simply put, 5G is the fifth generation of mobile networking that is slowly replacing 4G\/LTE<\/a> networks. And 5G offers the potential for dramatically faster download and upload speeds than 4G networks, plus considerably lower latency \u2014 the time it takes devices to communicate with wireless networks.<\/p>\n

Also, 5G networks are inherently more efficient, handling more connections per tower and at faster speeds per device. It is also designed to work across a wider range of radio frequencies (aka spectrum), opening up new possibilities in the midrange<\/a> and extremely high frequency (EHF) mmWave (millimeter-wave) bands<\/a> for carriers to expand their network offerings. Because 5G is an entirely new technology that operates on new frequencies and systems, 4G-only phones are incompatible with the new 5G networks.<\/p>\n

The first 5G networks commenced deployment in 2019, but the groundwork for the next-generation network was laid years earlier<\/a>. The 5G standard architecture was created in 2016, at which point every company and person involved from both the network and consumer sides could start making devices that were compliant with the new 5G standard.<\/p>\n

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Joe Maring\/Digital Trends<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this point, 5G hasn\u2019t hit total market saturation quite yet \u2014 but it\u2019s getting close. It takes a considerable amount of investment to build an entirely new network. For example, 4G\/LTE took about three years to reach mainstream status following its initial 2010 deployment in the U.S. However, 4G\/LTE didn\u2019t have to suffer through the same growing pains as the newer 5G technology since it was easier to deploy by comparison. All major U.S. carriers used the same basic 4G\/LTE technology.<\/p>\n

With 5G, carriers have had to take unique approaches in working around existing 4G\/LTE deployments while also working to acquire licenses for the higher frequencies that are necessary to deliver on the biggest promise of 5G: ultrafast gigabit speeds. That\u2019s taken more time, and there have been a few roadblocks along the way.<\/p>\n

It will likely still be a year or two before 5G becomes the dominant network worldwide, but we\u2019re definitely getting closer, particularly in the U.S. T-Mobile already boasts that its fastest 5G coverage<\/a> is available to 260 million people, and it expects that to grow to over 300 million \u2014 or 90% of the U.S. population \u2014 by the end of 2023. While T-Mobile had a big head start over its rivals, the other companies are catching up quickly: earlier this month, Verizon announced it had surpassed the 200 million mark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those numbers also only refer to the carriers\u2019 enhanced 5G networks. Depending on the carrier, standard low-band 5G<\/a> already reaches 85% to 95% of the U.S. population. While these lower-band frequencies don\u2019t deliver the same impressive speeds, they offer other benefits \u2014 and the ability to replace 4G\/LTE.<\/p>\n

<\/a>How does 5G network technology work?<\/h2>\n
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O-RAN Alliance<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like 4G, 5G technology operates on a wide range of radio spectrum allotments, but is capable of running on a wider<\/em> range than current networks. With 5G, there are three distinct frequency ranges that work in different ways. The most common form of 5G has traditionally been referred to as Sub-6, but that\u2019s more recently been divided into two subcategories. Beyond that is mmWave<\/a>, which operates on significantly higher frequencies \u2014 with some important tradeoffs.<\/p>\n

Sub-6 (Low-Band): <\/strong>Short for Sub-6GHz, the term Sub-6 technically includes all 5G frequencies that operate below that 6GHz threshold. However, in the early days of 5G, that was almost entirely made up of low-band frequencies<\/a> below 2GHz \u2014 the same spectrum that had been used for years by 2G, 3G, and 4G\/LTE networks. Most carriers began their 5G deployments using these frequencies as it was the easiest and most affordable way to start; 5G hardware could share the same towers and airwaves used by 4G\/LTE service, and since low-band frequencies travel much farther and more effortlessly penetrate walls, trees, and other obstacles, carriers also didn\u2019t have to put up a huge number of new towers to blanket areas with 5G coverage. However, there was a downside to using this low-band spectrum: 5G performance wasn\u2019t significantly faster than the 4G\/LTE services that came before. In fact, it could actually be slower in some cases, as 5G traffic had to yield the digital right-of-way to older 4G\/LTE signals using the same frequencies.<\/p>\n

mmWave:<\/strong> At the other end of the 5G spectrum is millimeter wave<\/a>, a swath of EHF spectrum where 5G currently operates at frequencies between 24GHz and 39GHz, although it\u2019s likely to expand even higher in the future. As the name suggests, these frequencies have a very short wavelength, which means they don\u2019t travel very far at all \u2014 a couple of city blocks at best. The upside is that 5G can deliver staggering performance over mmWave \u2014 easily reaching 4Gbps download speeds under ideal conditions. More significantly, this higher capacity also allows for better coverage in densely packed areas like stadiums, concert venues, and airports<\/a>. However, to blanket an area with this incredibly fast coverage requires thousands of small network cells \u2014 covering 95% of New York City would require nearly 60,000 individual mmWave towers. This is why Verizon\u2019s early 5G coverage, which relied solely on mmWave, was available only in the downtown cores of a few major cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sub-6 (midband\/C-band): <\/strong>To deliver on the promise of 5G, carriers and regulators needed to find a happy medium between the ultrafast but extremely short-range mmWave and the lower-band frequencies that offered expansive range but no meaningful improvement in speed over the 4G\/LTE networks that 5G is supposed to replace. The answer was found in a (mostly) new range of midband frequencies<\/a>, ranging from T-Mobile\u2019s 2.5GHz network to the 3.7GHz to 3.98GHz C-band spectrum licensed by Verizon and AT&T. This spectrum has become the sweet spot for 5G, offering substantially better range than mmWave while delivering near-gigabit performance levels that leave 4G\/LTE networks in the dust.<\/p>\n

Today, the major U.S. carriers have deployed 5G in all three of these spectrums, although they\u2019ve taken slightly different approaches. Verizon began with mmWave in a handful of cities before launching its nationwide low-band 5G network in late 2020 and then rolling out its C-band frequencies in early 2022. T-Mobile started with a very low-band 600MHz network that allowed it to be first to offer nationwide 5G in all 50 U.S. states, and then used the 2.5GHz midband spectrum it acquired from its 2020 merger with Sprint to get a head start on building out its faster 5G network. It deployed faster mmWave only in places like stadiums, where the higher capacity was absolutely necessary. AT&T has trailed slightly behind both its rivals; it has a large low-band 5G network, and like T-Mobile, it uses mmWave transceivers to cover denser areas, but its C-band deployments have only reached about a dozen cities so far.<\/p>\n

<\/a>How fast is 5G?<\/h2>\n
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Jakub Pabis \/ Unsplash<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clearly, 5G is faster than 4G<\/a>, but by how much? The short answer is: \u201cit depends.\u201d The standards for telecommunications technologies, developed by 3GPP<\/a>, are somewhat complex, but here\u2019s a general rundown of the speeds 5G is capable of reaching<\/a> under optimal conditions:<\/p>\n