AT&T offering Mobile 5G service to 12 U.S. cities starting December 21

jimbo45 · 19 Dec 2018

Brink said:

Source: ATT Brings 5G Service to U.S. on Dec. 21, 2018

Hi there
seems ridiculously expensive for perhaps not a mega improvement over what's available now.

If you really want to use this as a Hot spot then 15GB of data is a ridiculously small amount -- especially as in places (at least where I am) you can get virtually unlimited data at 1 - 10 Gb/s which is perfectly OK for me currently -

I'm all in favour of new technology but not at that sort of ridiculous price level. What's the point of having mega fast data speeds if you use up your entire monthly allowance in the first 10 mins in a month -- do these people who decide on the billing structure have any idea of how big say a 4K 2 hour UKD movie is -- for downloading these is what one needs really fast broadband for anyway.

Just look at Video rates - professional people who might like this will have to fork out zillions in data fees.

A single minute of ProRes UHD file (3840 x 2160) is around 5.3 GB (880 Mbits/s). You would need to expand your storage definitely if you are shooting at such high data rates. A single hour of 4K footage is a whopping 318 GB. 25 hours of 4K ProRes equals roughly 7.76 TB.

Even if you compress the professional video down to more consumer grade level you still get pretty large file sizes -- so this 5G stuff at that price level is totally stupid - and who needs 5G for mundane things like email / skype calls, social media stuff etc.

Great idea but price plan is utterly BONKERS. (Also to say nothing of another 500 USD for the Nighthawk hotspot/router device !!).

Cheers
jimbo

PolarNettles · 19 Dec 2018

This is basically just a demo to show off that they have some sort of 5G before anyone else. The high price is to discourage large numbers of people from signing up since 5G isn't ready for mass consumption.

The first 5G spec was only finalized in March of this year so the technology is highly unstable at this point. The first 4G spec was finalized in 2008 and it wasn't until 2011 that AT&T did their first public demo.

jimbo45 · 19 Dec 2018

PolarNettles said:

This is basically just a demo to show off that they have some sort of 5G before anyone else. The high price is to discourage large numbers of people from signing up since 5G isn't ready for mass consumption.

The first 5G spec was only finalized in March of this year so the technology is highly unstable at this point. The first 4G spec was finalized in 2008 and it wasn't until 2011 that AT&T did their first public demo.

Hi there

@PolarNettles

Then why not offer it limited to just a few pros (people in the field with news etc who want to upload PRO 4K video to studios or some Netflix execs to show streaming possibilities at this high definition) for free so that ordinary people might get their appetites whetted by the quality.

There's no point in offering this type of service at these ridiculous prices to "The Great Unwashed".

Hopeless marketing -- I just can't believe the high salaries some of the CEO's get from these businesses when obviously a 101 business guy could say what a stupid business model.

This type of service offering will just send it back years as current providers will attempt to squeeze more bandwidth out of existing systems and offer significantly cheaper rates.

Current technology will allow up to about 100 Gb/s without any major adjustment to the fibre optical cable infrastructure and in some cases even a speed of around 1 Tb/s is possible with existing technology -- not on a 4G phone of course and very few people get anything like that speed or even need it.

maybe the only people who need this stuff -- (from CIA canteen) are people drinking from these mugs !!!!

AT&T offering Mobile 5G service to 12 U.S. cities starting December 21-cia.png

Cheers
jimbo