this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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Tldr? Why do we need 6g anyway? What is the benefit supposed to be? Not higher transfer speeds I hope. We need modes with better support for low power and weak signals. For low power, 2G is superior to everything that came after it.
Tldr: different countries wanna do 6g differently. Actually a big problem is the big beautiful bill that just passed in the US. Wifi6e/7 6ghz spectrum that was reserved for wifi got approved to get auctioned off. But it's already a global standard. If us cell cariers buy it up and use it to make faster 6g cell speeds (short distance very high speed). That's going to fragment standards globally.
Cell carriers don't currently use anywhere near all their spectrum they already own.
I don't think that's exactly right. Spectrum that's already reserved for unlicensed use (wifi) was explicitly excluded from the auction directive.
There may be some spectrum in that band that's not already reserved for wifi yet that will end up auctioned, though.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/trump-and-congress-finalize-law-that-could-hurt-your-wi-fi/
The act itself still appears to include the language excluding wifi spectrum.
EDIT: Unless that only protected sub-6 wifi frequencies...
It's encryption has been broken for some time now, which leaves it vulnerable to some pretty serious security issues. On top of the obvious issue of people with the right know-how just listening to your calls and reading your texts, which you probably don't want.
(It's also how most cops/feds tap phones these days.)
I was so disappointed going from LTE to 5G and realizing the speed difference is minimal. I was so hopeful it would be mega faster! Going from gigabit at home to mobile speeds is sad.
Same. I kinda wonder if it’s saturation… when 5G was first announced and I happened to be in one of the first cities with it on a business trip, and I happen to have just bought a new phone that had it and it was AMAZING. Sites were snappy, it was like I was on my personal wifi.
Ever since it became more widespread, I can rarely tell a difference between LTE and 5G and honestly, If anything, my phone is slower when I see the 5G icon.
5g is fine (not great, but fine) on my phone until I get millimeter wave. The mw in the HEB parking lot down the street is amazing. If I get into the city proper it's a crapshoot if I am able to get on the Internet.
For many places, your signal isn't the bottleneck. It's the back haul from the tower to the main internet. 5G won't help if there's a straw connected to the fire hose of 5G.
Thing is, there are two different types of 5G. 5G NSA is using 5G, but on the same 4G network resulting in little to no speed change. And then there's 5G SA, the one you actually want but probably isn't deployed anywhere outside major cities if that.
I’m not sure where midband 5G falls, but it’s significantly faster than LTE with much more range than the millimeter wave 5G.
Likely more efficient use of spectrum, which means more clients on a tower without everything grinding to a halt.
this is just personal experience but IIRC I seemed to have much better power consumption with 4G/LTE over anything before. 5G/5G+ is good too but that is likely with recent buildout in my area. Weak signal support I have a hard time gauging as the phone bounces back to LTE where I seem to still have good 5G service.
How about we just don't turn iff 4g or 5g.