Like The Rest Of Its 5G Footprint, Verizon 5G Sports Venue Availability Is Being Overhyped
from the ill-communication dept
Have we mentioned lately that 5G is being over-hyped? While it's an important evolutionary step in wireless connectivity, it's far from the revolution hardware vendors and cellular carriers are promising. Verizon, for example, insists that 5G is the "fourth industrial revolution" that will almost miraculously spur the smart cities and smarter cars of tomorrow. While 5G is important (in that faster, more resilient networks are always important), the idea that 5G will fundamentally transform the world tends to overshoot the mark.
Carriers haven't quite learned yet that over-hyping the standard (or flat out lying about it) only serves to associate it with disappointment in the minds of consumers. Verizon, for example, has crowed widely about the company's early 5G launches, but when reporters and users actually try to use these networks, they routinely find they're barely available.
To hype the standard further, Verizon has been deploying it to select parts of a handful of major sports venues, insisting in its press releases that these early deployments are "fundamentally changing the way we live, work and play." But when reporters actually press the company on where it's available, they quickly discover it's, well, not. While Verizon has been hyping 5G availability in NFL stadiums, deeper inquiries have shown that the service is available in only a few areas because the millimeter wave spectrum Verizon is using for these early efforts has a hard time with range and penetrating walls.
The same thing is now playing out in other major sporting venues. While Verizon has claimed in press statements that it will soon be offering 5G in more than 10 major sports venues, Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica pressed them for additional detail and came away notably unimpressed:
"...When contacted by Ars, Verizon said the 5G network doesn't cover the whole arena for any of these NBA facilities. "Just certain seating areas" in the NBA arenas have access to 5G, a Verizon spokesperson told us.
This isn't surprising, given that Verizon's early 5G rollout relies heavily on millimeter-wave signals that don't travel far and are easily blocked by walls and other obstacles. But while NFL stadiums typically seat between 60,000 and 80,000 people, the seating capacity in NBA arenas is generally 17,000 to 21,000. Despite the big difference in size, Verizon's 5G network isn't yet capable of covering all the seating areas in any one of these facilities.
Yes, the transformative, revolutionary power of being able to get 1 Gbps connectivity you probably won't use in "a few seating areas."
Again, 5G will be a good thing, in that faster, lower latency, tougher networks are certainly good. But the empty hype carriers are using to promote what the standard can actually do (no it can't cure cancer) and where it's available (Cisco predicts 5G will still only account for around 10% of all mobile connections three years from now) is only sowing distrust among consumers.
There's a reason AT&T and Verizon are trying to hide 5G mapping data, and it's not because they're excited about its revolutionary capacity for change. They're using the modestly-important standard to not only justify charging consumers higher rates, but as a lynchpin to deregulate industry; as in: we don't need any consumer protections because 5G will soon be available everywhere as a sort of a competitive panacea. You're not supposed to know that claim isn't actually true. Telecom remains a fundamentally broken sector, with regulatory capture and mindless merger mania the fashion of the age. 5G isn't going to fix any of this.
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Filed Under: 5g, hype, overselling, sports venues
Companies: verizon
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It,s well known that 5g is very expensive to install, can be blocked by wall,s ,so it will be only viable to have it in urban area,s ,towns, city,s ,it makes no economic sense to have 5g in rural area,s .
Especially in america where theres, little competition among wireless providers ,
phones will just use 3g or 4g if theres no 5g signal avaidable .
5G is like streaming video on the internet,
It was years before services and apps were developed before we reached
the point where almost any tv program is avaidable to watch legally.
After the mp3 was invented it was years before apple provided the ipod
and itunes was online to buy music .
5g has great potential for providing high speed service,s
maybe in 3-5 years when the network is actually built.
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Make room in the attic for 5G, it will soon be sitting next to the thigh master, pocket fisherman and quadraphonic.
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If it cannot cover a stadium, how dense will the 'towers' be to provide continual coverage for mobile application in cities? How close will the have to get to one tower per residence, and what is the cost compared to running fibre to every residence?
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There was at least one idiot that claimed we don't meed net neutrality rules right now because 5G would fix everything.
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This piece seems hauntingly familiar. I swear I'd read it before, and recently. Like, less than a month ago.
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Re:
If 5G is 1G then it must be fed by fiber. If 5G transceivers have to be placed every few homes to get full coverage then it will already deliver fiber to the home everywhere 5G is available. Given that, there really is no reason to buy all new hardware. Just install existing gigabit tech in every home including gigabit wifi.
5G is a complete joke. Yeah, the cellular networks could be more stable and reliable but reducing their effective range and using a wavelength that can't cut through a bedsheet cancels out most of the gains. Just beef up 4G (in terms of reliability and signal strength), back it up with greater bandwidth at existing towers (allowing the removal of any and all data caps) and we're golden.
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Re:
We also don't need disease-free food right now because driverless cars will fix everything.
Fun game, I like it.
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About that...
Again, 5G will be a good thing, in that faster, lower latency, tougher networks are certainly good.
The unfortunate thing is that for all the benefits 5G could have, the ISP's have basically hamstrung them from the start with their greed.
Faster connections sound good... right until you hit your cap and are either throttled back down to dial-up speeds or start paying out the nose to actually use that connection.
Lower latency, and tougher networks likewise sound good... so long as they can be bothered to both roll them out enough to matter, and keep the equipment in good enough shape to actually be useful.
Given an extensive history of greed and incompetence/indifference with what they already offer I see no reason to assume they will treat 5G any different, and as such I expect any 'gains' to be well overshadowed by the hidden fees and various other 'conditions' that will be bundled with it.
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SHUT THE FUCK UPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP...............
ABOUT "FOOTPRINT"S........ I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUCKING SICK ABOUT YOU "PEOPLE" (???) TALKING ABOUT "FOOTPRINTS." WHAT YOU ARE REFERRING TO, IS THAT BULLSHIT "CARBON" CRAP AND I AM SICK AND FUCKING TIRED OF IT. WHETHER YOU MEAN CARBON OR NOT, STOP USING IT AS A BACKBONE TO EVERY SINGLE DAMNED STORY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. FFS.
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Re: SHUT THE FUCK UPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP...............
LOL - is this satire?
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Re: Re:
Oh, don't worry.... they WILL count the number of occupants in the homes that are "passed" as subscribers - you know, normal practice.
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