No service at BST Hyde Park concerts in 2023 & 2024 (~65,000 crowd). Often poor data rates at London Bridge station on O2. Signal ok, looks like inadequate backhaul capacity. National coverage is getting worse as is 3G switched off.
Hi Rory, this was all foretold by Peter Cochrane, if you seriously want an update then interview him. Basically the small cell nature of 5G makes it useless inside buildings unless big investment in internal networking is done.
Hi Rory, what we have now is actually better described as 4.5G, 5G radio access network (giving greater speeds) but using the 4G core network. The "real" 5G network is being rolled out now and is termed 5G standalone i.e. a completely 5G network without any dependency on the legacy 4G core network. This article gives more information - https://5g.co.uk/guides/what-is-a-5g-standalone-network/
Very good point Rory, would love to also know. EE’s signal for example is non existent at all in Wimbledon Village for example, never mind just 5G (which tends to be super fast in very small pockets in certain areas I notice).
The slow rollout to remote rural climes is also a problem. Partly because it is twinned with the other problem of fibre rollout. So, I am just moving to the very north of Scotland. Very remote. Internet via the copper pair is still stuck at slow adsl - 2mbps is optimistic.
5g? Nowhere to be seen and the silence from the companies is deafening. It has decent 4g, if you can point a 4g router at a mast (line of sight), so that is what I will rely on. I just have to work out how to get a cable to an antenna through a 1-foot thick wall! But even then, I will be limited by 4g speeds.
So, other alternatives?
The main one is Starlink. But there are issues. Thankfully, I don't have the main one - trees and surrounding buildings. The starlink satellites are not geostationary, so you can't point your dish in the right direction and not worry about it. They move, so for the best signal all the time, you need lots of sky. Where I will be has neither trees or buildings, so that is a thumbs up. But most rural properties have trees.
So, Starlink can give you a respectable 200mbps download. Well, kind of. They have introduced a priority layer to their pricing. This guarantees you priority for a certain quantity of downloads, depending on how much you pay. The standard residential has NO priority. It is £75 pcm, and you can get throttled right back. I have friends that regularly see their speed drop down to just 20mbps.
If you want more consistent speeds, then you need priority. Basic business (£80) gives you 40gb of data at priority pcm. A 4k streamed movie can use up to 7gb per hour. So, three movies? 1Tb priority plan costs £150 pcm. 2tb costs £300 pcm. This is now getting horrifically expensive! Plus the kit!
5g, fully enabled (which it isn't) can easily beat Starlink. It has a much higher bandwidth, and because the masts are not flying around, but are nailed down with nice cables attached to them, you are less likely to have data throttling - especially in the north of Scotland where there will always be fewer users bobbing around in any one cell. (This is my hope for my 4g too, by the way). But will we ever see it in remote places? I admit I am sceptical. It probably doesn't make financial sense for the companies. And I am not convinced how much our government really will force them to put in loss-making infrastructure.
So, while dropouts and the capped speed of 5g in the cities might be a bit of a pain, at least you have it!
By the way, if anyone is interested, the resource I use for finding towers to aim at is called Cell Mapper. Here is a link which is for the UK. When you click on a tower it gives you a ton of geeky info. Have fun playing:
Here in south Manchester, we often drop to 3G. In the city centre, it shows as 5G sometimes, mostly it’s 4G, however, it so slow that it may as well be steam-driven. And don’t get me started on WiFi…
No worries, 6G will fix it...
No service at BST Hyde Park concerts in 2023 & 2024 (~65,000 crowd). Often poor data rates at London Bridge station on O2. Signal ok, looks like inadequate backhaul capacity. National coverage is getting worse as is 3G switched off.
Hi Rory, this was all foretold by Peter Cochrane, if you seriously want an update then interview him. Basically the small cell nature of 5G makes it useless inside buildings unless big investment in internal networking is done.
Hi Rory, what we have now is actually better described as 4.5G, 5G radio access network (giving greater speeds) but using the 4G core network. The "real" 5G network is being rolled out now and is termed 5G standalone i.e. a completely 5G network without any dependency on the legacy 4G core network. This article gives more information - https://5g.co.uk/guides/what-is-a-5g-standalone-network/
EE have just announced the launch of 5G standalone in 15 cities including London (https://newsroom.ee.co.uk/ee-launches-game-changing-5g-standalone-network-and-next-gen-wi-fi-7-router-to-offer-customers-the-uks-best-connectivity-in-and-out-of-home/). So you should soon have better connectivity, even in the G-Tech!
Very good point Rory, would love to also know. EE’s signal for example is non existent at all in Wimbledon Village for example, never mind just 5G (which tends to be super fast in very small pockets in certain areas I notice).
The slow rollout to remote rural climes is also a problem. Partly because it is twinned with the other problem of fibre rollout. So, I am just moving to the very north of Scotland. Very remote. Internet via the copper pair is still stuck at slow adsl - 2mbps is optimistic.
5g? Nowhere to be seen and the silence from the companies is deafening. It has decent 4g, if you can point a 4g router at a mast (line of sight), so that is what I will rely on. I just have to work out how to get a cable to an antenna through a 1-foot thick wall! But even then, I will be limited by 4g speeds.
So, other alternatives?
The main one is Starlink. But there are issues. Thankfully, I don't have the main one - trees and surrounding buildings. The starlink satellites are not geostationary, so you can't point your dish in the right direction and not worry about it. They move, so for the best signal all the time, you need lots of sky. Where I will be has neither trees or buildings, so that is a thumbs up. But most rural properties have trees.
So, Starlink can give you a respectable 200mbps download. Well, kind of. They have introduced a priority layer to their pricing. This guarantees you priority for a certain quantity of downloads, depending on how much you pay. The standard residential has NO priority. It is £75 pcm, and you can get throttled right back. I have friends that regularly see their speed drop down to just 20mbps.
If you want more consistent speeds, then you need priority. Basic business (£80) gives you 40gb of data at priority pcm. A 4k streamed movie can use up to 7gb per hour. So, three movies? 1Tb priority plan costs £150 pcm. 2tb costs £300 pcm. This is now getting horrifically expensive! Plus the kit!
5g, fully enabled (which it isn't) can easily beat Starlink. It has a much higher bandwidth, and because the masts are not flying around, but are nailed down with nice cables attached to them, you are less likely to have data throttling - especially in the north of Scotland where there will always be fewer users bobbing around in any one cell. (This is my hope for my 4g too, by the way). But will we ever see it in remote places? I admit I am sceptical. It probably doesn't make financial sense for the companies. And I am not convinced how much our government really will force them to put in loss-making infrastructure.
So, while dropouts and the capped speed of 5g in the cities might be a bit of a pain, at least you have it!
By the way, if anyone is interested, the resource I use for finding towers to aim at is called Cell Mapper. Here is a link which is for the UK. When you click on a tower it gives you a ton of geeky info. Have fun playing:
https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=234&MNC=30&type=LTE&latitude=54.46589921537122&longitude=-1.829605915929099&zoom=5.950939661188148&showTowers=true&showIcons=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=true&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=Last&showHex=false&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap&darkMode=false&imperialUnits=false
Or even 4G, 3G is effectively useless as you can’t do anything 🙄
I’m no expert on the technology but I’m currently travelling through Poland and everywhere 5G appears on my phone.
Here in south Manchester, we often drop to 3G. In the city centre, it shows as 5G sometimes, mostly it’s 4G, however, it so slow that it may as well be steam-driven. And don’t get me started on WiFi…