When will ATT 5G be relevant in San Bernardino, CA

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MelonSplitter

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I live in San Bernardino, CA and want to pull the trigger on the new Note 10 Plus but am on the fence if I should get the 4g or 5g variant. Samsung has offered me $600 for my Note 9 as a trade-in. Should I get the 4g or the 5g phone. In my city there is no 5g currently and it seems like there won't be none anytime soon, like maybe next year. I also feel that if I get the 4g variant I'll be screwed when 5g comes to town and makes my Note 10 Plus 4g irrelevant. SMH
 
Back in the day, I bought an HTC EVO 4G right when 4G was becoming a thing. By the time the 4G networks had caught up to their original advertised speeds, the phone was pretty much obsolete.

Never buy a phone based on a non-existing service or a promise.

However, if you like a certain phone and it just so happens to also come with 5G capability, then sure.

Samsung's 5G will still work on the 4G networks, so unless the price difference is significant to you, I'd get the 5G variant. It's up to you to decide if that's extra money well worth spent.

Oh, and ATT has already gotten off on the wrong foot with 5G. Don't fall for their 5G "Evolution" marketing crap. That's nothing but 4G LTE in disguise.
 
5g prevalence? probably never, just like 4g never became totally prevalent and we got LTE instead.

Is there content that you are struggling to download? the biggest benefit to the 5g standards is the expected reduction in latencies, but even then it may not be completely noticeable in day to day usage.

I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to achieve it, especially early on.
 
Well it turns out I won't be getting neither. Samsung's Trade in eligibility for the "international" version of the Note 9 which I have does not qualify for the $600 trade in value. Only the US version qualifies for the offer which freakin sucks. No way I'm spending $1099 on this phone. Dang
 
Trimlock said:
5g prevalence? probably never, just like 4g never became totally prevalent and we got LTE instead.
Click to expand...

LTE was supposed to be 4G, until AT&T started lying and calling their 3G revision 4G.

They're doing the same thing with 5G, calling an LTE evolution "5G", but at least this time they're being sued for it.


As to actual 5G... who knows. It helps the most, on paper, when towers and spectrum are saturated with users. Otherwise it's pretty meaningless vs. LTE or even 3G/ATT 4G if you can get a good signal and bandwidth.

Check back in two or three years.
 
When AT&T brought UMTS, HSDPA, HSPA and such to my town it was all fine and dandy until the iPhone was launched and then got 3g. Then it got crappy.

When LTE came to my town it was fast, until the iPhone got LTE then it slowed down but still had better latency.

Presumably 5G will be the same way.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
So if you want Apple, you're a first-class citizen on AT&T?
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It's more that Apple has such a large share of AT&T (and most US carriers, really) that its iPhone cellular upgrades affect network performance. The iPhone 3G crushed AT&T's network for a while in part because 3G smartphones only had modest uptake and usage until then... people weren't tripping over themselves to get mediocre Palm Treos and Windows Mobile phones that could barely even load a website.
 
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Aurelius said:
It's more that Apple has such a large share of AT&T (and most US carriers, really) that its iPhone cellular upgrades affect network performance. The iPhone 3G crushed AT&T's network for a while in part because 3G smartphones only had modest uptake and usage until then... people weren't tripping over themselves to get mediocre Palm Treos and Windows Mobile phones that could barely even load a website.
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You are of course forgetting about Blackberry which continued to be a staple for users at that time. The first 3g Bb phone came out in 2006. With of course greater adoption and more handsets in 2007 and beyond.

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On topic, I wouldn't expect 5g, let alone 5g in San Bernadino, to be relevant for another year or two years. It's like trying to buy an 8k TV today. Japan is pushing 8k broadcast and TV sets, but anyone who buys now is an early adopter. It's going to be a while before there is any form of saturation in major cities, let alone anywhere else.
 
At this 5G phones are developed primarily for the up charge. The actual network is still years away from being widely viable. I’m guessing we’re still a minimum 3 years away before 5G is worth getting a phone for.
 
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Without removal of monthly caps, higher throughput is meaningless.

I cruised through 40GB without breaking a sweat this month and ATT seems to think this is unreasonable (throttles to 128kbps).
 
Machupo said:
Without removal of monthly caps, higher throughput is meaningless.

I cruised through 40GB without breaking a sweat this month and ATT seems to think this is unreasonable (throttles to 128kbps).
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It’s true that with speeds the tendency is for usage to go up. But you’re ignoring how useful it is to have all net activities feel instant. There is a lot of value in that even if the caps don’t get raised.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
It’s true that with speeds the tendency is for usage to go up. But you’re ignoring how useful it is to have all net activities feel instant. There is a lot of value in that even if the caps don’t get raised.
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True, but even with "5Ge", response is certainly not instant on a mobile network, afterall, latency =/= throughput and with rural node/tower spacing there is plenty of room for improvement (predictive caching, fiber to the tower, etc). Guess I am spoiled from living in Seoul for years :p
 
Machupo said:
True, but even with "5Ge", response is certainly not instant on a mobile network, afterall, latency =/= throughput and with rural node/tower spacing there is plenty of room for improvement (predictive caching, fiber to the tower, etc). Guess I am spoiled from living in Seoul for years :p
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5Ge isn’t 5g.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
5Ge isn’t 5g.
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Obviously, it's duplicitous marketing. Actual 5G is also quite a ways frkm reasonable implementation and has some power usage, frequency management, and distance issues to overcome to be relevant to much of the US.

Of course, as the OP was only discussing San Bernadino, I guess the answer is: it depends (in the future), but not right now :)
 
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