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I think 5G isn't worth it

Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
The cons :
- power hungry with a strong carbon print
- leads to the obsolescence of majority of smartphones
- constitutes a threat to employment (the plan for a lot of companies is to able to replace many local technicians with one remote one through 5G connection)

The pro :
- allows you download stuff faster

Well, the more I think about it, the more I think we should just be satisfied with what we already have and just improve it to avoid blank zones with no network connection. The impact on environment of 5G is bad (you can download the french report here) , this, coupled with IA, will inevitably lead to job destructions (I can see the begining of this in my work).

I'm someone who truly believes in science and technology but progress is only real when it leads to better living conditions for the whole society. I don't think that's the case for 5G.
Maybe I'm missing some key features, so feel free to discuss, and please, don't be as dumb and cynical as our president macron who said that everyone who was against 5G was an amish (sic)...
 

VAD

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,528
I wish they attained full 4g coverage before jumping into 5G. It's just an excuse to sell more expensive data plans now.
 
Tatsu91

Tatsu91

Banned
Apr 7, 2019
3,147
Herb Alpert said:
The cons :
- power hungry with a strong carbon print
- leads to the obsolescence of majority of smartphones
- constitutes a threat to employment (the plan for a lot of companies is to able to replace many local technicians with one remote one through 5G connection)

The pro :
- allows you download stuff faster

Well, the more I think about it, the more I think we should just be satisfied with what we already have and just improve it to avoid blank zones with no network connection. The impact on environment of 5G is bad (you can download the french report here) , this, coupled with IA, will inevitably lead to job destructions (I can see the begining of this in my work).

I'm someone who truly believes in science and technology but progress is only real when it leads to better living conditions for the whole society. I don't think that's the case for 5G.
Maybe I'm missing some key features, so feel free to discuss, and please, don't be as dumb and cynical as our president macron who said that everyone who was against 5G was an amish (sic)...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Anything that is a threat to emplyoment proves we need some sort of UBI as one day all things that can be done by machines should be as it makes lives easier but people should be able to survive. So i get its bad but It is inevitable one day many of these jobs will be automated and will make life easier but socially we need to keep up with the technology aspect.
 
UF_C

UF_C

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,347
You forgot the whole, needs line of sight deal, which is why the wireless carriers are struggling so much getting REAL 5g off the ground.
 
Firestorm

Firestorm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,709
Vancouver, BC
Herb Alpert said:
The cons :
- power hungry with a strong carbon print
- leads to the obsolescence of majority of smartphones
- constitutes a threat to employment (the plan for a lot of companies is to able to replace many local technicians with one remote one through 5G connection)

The pro :
- allows you download stuff faster

Well, the more I think about it, the more I think we should just be satisfied with what we already have and just improve it to avoid blank zones with no network connection. The impact on environment of 5G is bad (you can download the french report here) , this, coupled with IA, will inevitably lead to job destructions (I can see the begining of this in my work).

I'm someone who truly believes in science and technology but progress is only real when it leads to better living conditions for the whole society. I don't think that's the case for 5G.
Maybe I'm missing some key features, so feel free to discuss, and please, don't be as dumb and cynical as our president macron who said that everyone who was against 5G was an amish (sic)...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Uh, the key things you're missing are that it's a way of bringing broadband internet access to a larger portion of the population than is currently possible. 4G doesn't have the latency to give those people an experience similar to traditional broadband.
 
Green

Green

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,410
We get max 20GB plans in Canada. And they ain't cheap. At 5G speeds, you'd blow through that in minutes. It's stupid. We'll still be using WiFi for any real downloading/caching.
 
Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,276
Seattle, WA
Herb Alpert said:
That's what I'm talking about in the OP, please don't do this "you're against progress" thing.
I tried to explain the context.
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The context doesn't excuse the reality of what you're asking for. Saying "We should just learn to be content and not bother with improvement due to the short-term costs" is what you're asking for here - and it is explicitly a Luddite argument.

Either lean into the reality of your request, or back of it. You can't have it both ways.
 
bsigg

bsigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,556
Herb Alpert said:
What's that ?
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Back in 2019, scientists warned that some of the spectrum the FCC was selling off for 5G networks would cause issues with doppler radar detection of water droplets which would set back weather forecasting. The 2 groups of frequencies they auctioned off are near what water droplets transmit which would cause the doppler radar to assume a 5G network using those frequencies is actually a mass of water droplets.

5G Wireless Networks Could Interfere with Weather Forecasts, Meteorologists Warn | The Weather Channel - Articles from The Weather Channel | weather.com
 
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OP
OP
Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
Mushroomer25 said:
The context doesn't excuse the reality of what you're asking for. Saying "We should just learn to be content and not bother with improvement due to the short-term costs" is what you're asking for here - and it is explicitly a Luddite argument.

Either lean into the reality of your request, or back of it. You can't have it both ways.
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Click to shrink...

I think that in our day and age, any technology that isn't more virtuous than its predecessor environment wise should be weighed in regard to what it can bring to humanity in term of overall shared by all well being.
In this regard, I think 5G is a paradigm from the past and isn't worth it.
 
Ravelle

Ravelle

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,793
4G is stil fast enough for me, it's usually also way faster than when my my home's wifi and the only thing I download are mobile games and the occasional comics from comixoligy.
 
DanteSparda504

DanteSparda504

Member
Nov 2, 2017
4,469
Birmingham, AL
I wish I could disable 5G and be on LTE for awhile. Maybe it's just not fully rolled out where I live or something, but I have noticed it's slower than LTE. And I run into spots where the signal just completely stalls despite having full bars.
 

Deleted member 5359

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,326
I've only found one spot in Los Angeles county (Pasadena, specifically) with 5G ultra wideband coverage on Verizon. Everything else is LTE or narrow band 5G, which performs about the same as LTE.

It's going to take a LONG time to get wideband coverage implemented.
 
Keldroc

Keldroc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,984
Herb Alpert said:
I think that in our day and age, any technology that isn't more virtuous than its predecessor environment wise should be weighed in regard to what it can bring to humanity in term of overall shared by all well being.
In this regard, I think 5G is a paradigm from the past and isn't worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Virtue is subjective and worthless metric for this.
 
FliX

FliX

Master of the Reality Stone
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
9,872
Metro Detroit
5G with its significantly reduced latency is going to be a pre-requisite to lots of automation applications both on the consumer side (self driving cars) but even more so on the industrial side for use in smart factories and such.
Also reliability will be in effect as high as using wired Ethernet. There will be practically no down time which is also critical for industrial applications.

5G is really not about being able to download Netflix movies faster...
 
Damaniel

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,536
Portland, OR
My phone is 5G enabled, but I specifically disable it because performance is worse than 4G in my particular area. It's early yet, but I'm not sure 5G will bring as much to the table as the developers of the standard had hoped, especially if localities start to push back due to conspiracy and misinformation.

That being said, at least my complaints are technical and not based on conspiracy theories.
 
Djalminha

Djalminha

Alt-Account
Banned
Sep 22, 2020
2,103
Tatsu91 said:
Anything that is a threat to emplyoment proves we need some sort of UBI as one day all things that can be done by machines should be as it makes lives easier but people should be able to survive. So i get its bad but It is inevitable one day many of these jobs will be automated and will make life easier but socially we need to keep up with the technology aspect.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Totally this. Who wants to spend their days fixing technical issues with the network? Most of those people would rather do something else, but right now we need them. Eventually this should happen with lots of industries, people oppose closing factories but also don't want to spend their lives working in factories. UBI will be the solution.
 
OP
OP
Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
FliX said:
5G with its significantly reduced latency is going to be a pre-requisite to lots of automation applications both on the consumer side (self driving cars) but even more so on the industrial side for use in smart factories and such.
Also reliability will be in effect as high as using wired Ethernet. There will be practically no down time which is also critical for industrial applications.

5G is really not about being able to download Netflix movies faster...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Self driving cars used to be the hot thing but hasn't uber given up ? And Google wasn't so hot than they used to be ?
 
lt519

lt519

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,064
Herb Alpert said:
I think that in our day and age, any technology that isn't more virtuous than its predecessor environment wise should be weighed in regard to what it can bring to humanity in term of overall shared by all well being.
In this regard, I think 5G is a paradigm from the past and isn't worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Such a weird way to look at a thin-slice of the technology curve. 5G is going to enable progress to more connected systems (i.e. cars) that'll ultimately benefit society through increased safety and efficiency of large systems (i.e. traffic control). It's also creating the infrastructure for future technologies and creating a more globally connected society. I think with the BLM/Hong Kong protests spreading across the globe was one of the first times we really saw the humane benefit of a connected world where information can spread quickly.
 
bremon

bremon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,858
Green said:
We get max 20GB plans in Canada. And they ain't cheap. At 5G speeds, you'd blow through that in minutes. It's stupid. We'll still be using WiFi for any real downloading/caching.
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Click to shrink...
50GB plans are out there. How fast you burn through it really depends on what you're doing I guess; it's the same amount of data on LTE, just faster on 5G. I can see a future where 5G becomes commonplace and is a way for even rural areas to have high speed Internet without sinking billions of dollars into fibre.
 
OP
OP
Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
lt519 said:
Such a weird way to look at a thin-slice of the technology curve. 5G is going to enable progress to more connected systems (i.e. cars) that'll ultimately benefit society through increased safety and efficiency of large systems (i.e. traffic control). It's also creating the infrastructure for future technologies and creating a more globally connected society. I think with the BLM/Hong Kong protests spreading across the globe was one of the first times we really saw the humane benefit of a connected world where information can spread quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The point is, it already spreads quickly, doesn't it ?
 
Gwarm

Gwarm

Member
Nov 13, 2017
2,152
5G is already doing wonders for home internet in rural areas. I've been reading posts about it on the T-Mobile subreddit, and people are getting 100+ mbps connections using only the low-band frequencies. Mid-band can get up to 300 mbps, and still has long enough range to serve rural areas. When your only other option is a 3 mbps satellite connection with 700 ms ping, this is a huge positive change.
 
Mathiassen

Mathiassen

The Fallen
Oct 31, 2017
257
"- constitutes a threat to employment (the plan for a lot of companies is to able to replace many local technicians with one remote one through 5G connection) " what does this mean? Could you clarify?
 
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