Why is 5G so much cheaper than 4G

[suicidal_orange]

I'm once again looking at possible 'upgrades' to my phone contract, 'upgrades' because I can save 20% in exchange for an 88% loss in data allowance staying on 4G, which isn't ideal.  But for the same price I can have an 800% increase in data on 5G?

I would suggest this is because they want to sell me a shiny new tracker phone but both options are sim only, so there must be some technical reason it's so much cheaper which makes no sense when there is no 5G coverage for about 95% of the UK so assumedly they need to put up many more masts.

What's going on?

[fohat.digs]

The spy chip taps into your bank account to trickle money out of it.

[Findecanor]

Makes perfect sense. This is to make people switch to the 5G contract, despite the crappy coverage. And they need more 5G customers to justify putting up more masts. Then they'll increase the price of 5G once enough people are on.

[Darthbaggins]

Still waiting, but have noticed a degradation in my 4G LTE since the push for 5G from Verizon.  Also me upgrading my lines to 5G would end up costing me more in my bill even with their "Deals".

[suicidal_orange]

Makes perfect sense. This is to make people switch to the 5G contract, despite the crappy coverage.

Do 5G devices just use the 4G network everywhere then?  It's not even crappy coverage like the old days where you had to go outside to make a call, it's literally no coverage for 40 miles in any direction from here (cities only)

[tp4tissue]

Quite concerned about their beaming tech, it's like a VERY focused microwave transmitter.

[Leslieann]

5G will not replace 4G, not anytime soon.
Basically it lets them offload high data use to 5G in high traffic areas, but pretty much ONLY high traffic areas. As 3g dies, expect coverage in rural areas to actually be reduced, by quite a lot actually.


5g has a rather short range but high bandwidth compared to 4g or especially 3g or 2g, but towers tend to be clustered around larger clusters of people so it somewhat counters the problem. A tighter, more focused beam allows it to get a bit more range but they still need 4g to cover the greater distances and they may still need a wider antenna for local use to avoid tons of dead spots. The narrow beam isn't going to nuke you as it makes zero sense to put those down low, they need to be up high so they aren't blocked by anything and everything, even trees kill wifi (it also sucks when raining).

5G is barely above old school 2.4ghz WIFI (it's 2.5-3.7ghz). In fact it's little more than WIFI with a bigger antenna than you're allowed at home. The higher the frequency the shorter the range, the higher bandwidth and more easily it's blocked, it's a trade-off. This is why 2.4 WIFI has longer range than your 5.8ghz WIFI and penetrates walls better but has less bandwidth. Most 3G is down around 900-1900mhz, which gives it superior range and penetration but horrible bandwidth.