As they move to 5G, I am getting worse and worse reception.

[edhopper]

I have Verizon in New York City, and every since they started rolling out 5G, my 4G phone is getting worse and worse reception and dropping out in more places.

Is anybody else experiencing something similar to this?

I wonder if, even though they are saying 4G phones are backward compatible, they are screwing with the service to make you upgrade to the more expensive 5G phones and plans?

[genxlib]

1. It is probably the vaccine

The 5G chip in your arm is probably overpowering your signal

Need i say

[edhopper]

4. Well there is that

I didn't ask for the Verizon chip with my Moderna shot.

[ananda]

16. LOL

Sorry, but that hit my funny bone.

[CatWoman]

20. Mine too

[Laurelin]

21. My friend got pfizer

And two days later he got 5G. Truth!

So maybe you got the wrong shot.

[brooklynite]

2. Verizon doesn't make phones, so why would they care?

[edhopper]

3. They sell phones,

most make the cost of the phone part of their monthly plans.
But the real motivation is the upgrade to the 5G plan.

[Tommymac]

5. That may be a part of it however

It takes $$ to maintain the infrastructure.

It is always the case more $$ are spent on upgrading and new 5G capable towers. The 4G capability is still there, but it is scaled down as the 5G infrastructure is built out.

Same thing happened when 4G, 3G etc were rolled out.

It's the nature of designed obsolescence that is implicit in a Capitalistic for profit system.

Eventually, 5G units will be cheaper then 4G. And then they'll roll out 6G.

[edhopper]

8. So I could be right about the cause

whatever the motivation of Verizon?

[Tommymac]

10. Possibly. I worked in the field for Verizon and Crown Castle for a while years ago.

Verizon and other Corps are not doing this just to screw with folks.

There is always some motivation to push customers to the new technology since the cost of deploying new technologies has to be covered.

But they are not making 4G less reliable JUST to push peeps off it. I can almost guarantee that.

That it is definitely not the Main cause is reality. They do not want to lose customer base. Thinking it is the MAIN reason for lowered service SLA's crosses into crazy conspiracy territory imo.

It's just how Capitalism works.

[edhopper]

18. I get what you are saying

[brooklynite]

9. It is also the nature of capitalism to respond to customer demand...

...The fact that some people are happy with a 5 year old phone or a 10 year old laptop doesn't mean that tech companies are going to invest in maintaining infrastructure for older technologies when most of their customers have upgraded by choice to something newer.

[dweller]

6. Is it an iPhone?

Did you do the security upgrade?

When I did my iPhone that was having connectivity issues cleared right up, works like a new fone again

ymmv

✌🏻

[edhopper]

7. Android

I am having reception problems in my home, and I never did before.

[RussBLib]

11. Our phones had 5G capability

But the 5G signal was almost non-existent, even with T-Mobile advertising 5G like mad.

We eventually downgraded our phone to a 4G LTE model and it is much better.

Anecdotally, 5G seems like a giant scam.

[Demsrule86]

13. We have it in Cleveland and it is wonderful. I went on vacation to South Carolina...my phone was

the only one on 5G and I was the only one that had service. I believe in January 4G phones will cease to work.

[RussBLib]

14. Well, it's good to hear 5G is working....

SOMEWHERE.

I heard they were discontinuing 3G soon, but not 4G.

[Demsrule86]

32. I really like it...and consider this. In the near future, we will be able to run our

homes with 5G...no fiber optics needed or routers...even rural Americans will have good internet. It is already being tested in Cleveland. I am on the list but so far it is not in my area.

[highplainsdem]

29. It's 3G that's being phased out early next year, not 4G. And there are lots of problems with 5G:

https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-5g-mmwave-933631/



4G LTE is expected to be around for at least another decade.

[Demsrule86]

31. Is that so...ATT sent my sister-in-law a new phone that could handle 5G...maybe ATT is

phasing them out.

[highplainsdem]

38. No, she didn't need 5G for AT&T. Here's their page about that:

https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1324171/


At this point, honestly, 5G seems to be mostly about marketing more expensive phones and plans, and hopes for the future. From what I've heard, it's unlikely to ever be widely available in rural America. It requires a huge proliferation of towers in metro areas. It requires extra antennas built into phones because even your hand can block the fastest 5G waves.

The lightning-fast speeds carriers are bragging about in their marketing are needed by very few users. And at this point, 5G in actual use isn't providing those speeds anyway:


https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/08/5g-speed/

Considering how fast a phone's OS can become outdated, it makes much more sense now, if you need a new phone, to get 4G LTE rather than 5G, and to forget the 5G plans.

But of course carriers make a lot more money if they convince you that you have HAVE to have 5G RIGHT NOW.

[Demsrule86]

40. They replaced her phone for free with a similar phone (android) no cost.

?...not looking a gift horse in the mouth. She is sadly in a home. This is my husband's way older sister. She had a bad fall and simply won't do the therapy as it hurts. Medicaid pays for her care and she gets $50.00 a month for everything else. We pay her phone and other bills. She has Hulu and streaming channels too...we got her a ROKU.

[highplainsdem]

46. It was very good of AT&T to replace her phone for free. And if she'd had a 3G phone, that would

have had to be replaced by early next year.

I'm so sorry she needs to be in a nursing home. Yes, physical therapy can be painful, but the alternative -- getting in worse shape and then being at much greater risk of falls -- is so much worse.

Kudos to you for helping her so much, since Medicaid leaves so little money for personal expenses.

Roku is great, and if her attention span is limited, she might especially like YouTube on Roku. If she likes pet videos, there's the Pet Collective channel/app on Roku. If the nursing home she's in is any distance from her home, you might be able to find the local news shows she's used to on NewsOn.

[joshcryer]

33. More the foreseeable future, gigabit LTE is just as good as 5G.

5G's speeds really really aren't necessary for even 4K streaming. 5G's a bit overhyped and it is impossible it'll ever be deployed as widely as LTE.

[Demsrule86]

41. 5G can be used in place of our current internet equipment...like fiber optics or phone lines...it

is an amazing technology. Already some here are using it for streaming in their homes. I love speed as I am the queen of speed!

[JonAndKatePlusABird]

19. FWIW, I'm on TMobile 5G and it's fantastic

I just took a Speedtest from the phone, here is the result: https://imgur.com/gallery/2H9JBTE

Taken from inside a brick construction building in midtown Manhattan.

[Demsrule86]

42. That is great!!!

[Demsrule86]

12. 5G is much faster but don't you have to change your phone before January?

[WHITT]

15. Real 5G

A lot of what the carriers are selling as '5G' is only various versions of enhanced 4G. You can easily spot real 5G antennas, as they have those giant vertical elements. You likely witnessed them set-up at the Super Bowl or other large events. What the carriers don't want to talk about is they have MUCH shorter reception.

[Roland99]

26. Been seeing 5G "towers" going in lately. Like a thick telephone pole

Seems these will be neighborhood based?

One is like 100-200’ from houses. I wouldn’t want one that close to my home!

[WHITT]

28. That's The Other Thing

carriers don't want to mention. Because the reception range is so much shorter, they will have to fill neighborhoods with towers.

[Demsrule86]

43. Eventually, I believe the internet will come from these towers...it will be so much faster and as

I said before a cheap way to bring internet to rural America.

[highplainsdem]

30. Yep. See this article, which I also posted a link to in reply 29 above:

https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-5g-mmwave-933631/

[ananda]

17. My old iphone 7 plus has 4G, but I'm on ATT's line.

I wonder how long that will last.

[fescuerescue]

22. Sounds legit.

The spectrum for 5g has to come from existing spectrum.

So as 5g ramps up, the allocate more spectrum to 5g and less to everything else.

They did the same for 3g and as it ramped up.

Spectrum is limited resource.

[Celerity]

34. Completely different frequencies

4G networks use frequencies below 6 GHz, while 5G will use much higher frequencies in the 30 GHz to 300 GHz range. ... 5G can therefore support approximately 1,000 more devices per meter than 4G. On 5G, more data will more quickly get to more people with less latency and disruption to meet surging data demands.

https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/the-shift-from-4g-to-5g-will-change-just-about-everything/

[fescuerescue]

35. Oh interesting. I hadn't followed 5g that closely

I didn't know it was that big of a jump.

I wonder how the building penetration is with 30 to 300ghz?

When the carriers were divided between 1900mhz and 850mhz. The carriers that ran 850mhz (Verizon) had a big advantage over 1900 carriers (tmobile, sprint and partial ATT).

30-300GHZ is a heck lot high than the jump from 850m to 1900m

[highplainsdem]

39. See my reply 29 above for a link to an article about the fastest 5G waves and the problems with them

[Crunchy Frog]

23. It will be better once you get your booster shot.

[NurseJackie]

24. I laughed and laughed when I heard that the 5G towers caused Covid.

[BlueIdaho]

25. It's amazing what crap these troglodytes will swallow isn't it?

Since they refuse to learn how anything works - everything falls into the category of magic and sorcery.

[Demsrule86]

44. My sister claims it causes paralysis...she is a great Democrat but is off the wall about 5G

Probably hear hears all the crap from the local Georgia stations.

[edhopper]

27. I haven't thought of the possiblity

that the chips my wife and I have from our vaccine are interfering with our phones.

[Tracer]

36. My Verizon reception is SO bad,

that I had to reinstall a landline.

Could absolutely NEVER speak on the phone without it dropping out or being impossible to hear the other person.

[edhopper]

37. Is thet recent

or was it always like that?

[Texaswitchy]

45. You will need a new phone.

5g is taking over.