Superbowl Ads Try To Make 5G Sexy, But Consumers Still Aren't Buying The Hype
from the big-yawn dept
For years now, wireless carriers have struggled to make fifth generation wireless (5G) interesting to consumers. While the technology does provide faster, lower-latency connectivity, that's more of an evolution than any kind of revolution. But in a bid to excite consumers (and justify high prices), wireless carriers have been pouring it on a little thick for years, trying to insist that 5G will somehow revolutionize the future, cure cancer, solve climate change, and generally turn America's urban landscape into the smart cities of tomorrow. And don't get me started on the "race to 5G."
During the Super Bowl, Verizon used Jim Carrey and T-Mobile hired Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus to try and make 5G sexy, but most consumers still generally couldn't care any less about 5G:
"5G service has yet to really resonate with consumers, said Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics. Entner notes that out of monthly surveys of 3,000 consumers, 5G service ranks 5th out of 9 categories for the most important reason to pick a new wireless provider, and 9th out of 9 as a reason to leave a provider. "Just saying my G is bigger than your G — consumers don’t give a hoot," Entner told Axios. "And that’s because we really haven’t seen these must-have applications that are reliant on 5G."
On the one hand, wireless providers want to use 5G to target cable providers by offering home broadband services over 5G. The problem: these aren't companies that have ever been all that interested in competing on price. And wireless still tends to come with odd caveats that make it an inferior alternative to technologies like fiber or even modern cable.
Most consumer surveys show that consumers generally want two things from wireless providers: more reliable coverage and lower prices. The industry isn't interested in providing the second one (and thanks to telecom consolidation that's not likely to change anytime soon). And 5G range in the U.S., has been hindered by a lack of "middle band" spectrum in the U.S., which, unlike high band spectrum (fast speeds, short distances), and low-band (good range, slower speeds), provides both decent speeds at a decent range. The lack of said spectrum has meant that U.S. 5G deployments are generally slower than most overseas deployments, creating an even bigger chasm between reality and hype.
Desperate to make 5G more interesting than it is, wireless carriers have taken to over-promoting what the technology can actually do. This almost always involves taking something you could theoretically already do over 4G or WIFI (like giving someone a tattoo on the other side of the country! or using special effects at concerts!) then pretending it's only made possible thanks to the miracle of 5G. But time and time again, consumers have made it clear they're not buying it. It's even resulted in a 40% jump since 2019 in inter-carrier disputes over misleading ads, given even they know they're full of shit on the subject.
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Akin to,...
and just like microFlaccid does, it matters not what shade of lipstick one puts on that Wild Boar; it is still, and ever will be, a pig.
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Re: Akin to,...
To quote Robin of Loxley from Robin Hood Men in Tights:
"No, no, that's a wild pig." *points at flailing, dishonest telecoms. "THAT's a wild bore."
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You forgot "making american planes fall out of sky"
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Re:
that's not how any of this works
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Worse Than Useless
My phone and carrier are theoretically 5G capable, but it chewed through battery so fast I had to turn it off. Most of the proposed use cases are either gimmicky nonsense or things that I would want to actively avoid anyway.
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The funny thing is that 5G might actually be good
Namely, good as long as it does not become popular. Once it does, you get the "nobody goes there anymore since it is always too crowded" effect. Which is basically what every technology change does. So you need the impetus to get everyone to move over before they notice that it doesn't buy them anything if everybody does it. The question is just when the right point of time is to actively sabotage your established cash cow in order to stimulate a mass move.
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Why 5G?
I can watch Netflix 4k HD using my 4g signal. So why would I want 5G?
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Re: Why 5G?
You must have an extremely large display to make the most out of a 4K resolution from a 4G signal.
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Re: Re: Why 5G?
Or from any signal. If you're watching on a laptop, phone or tablet display, you're probably just wasting bandwidth unless you have extraordinary eyesight. From there it depends not only on the display, but the software. I bought a new TV a few months back, and something I noticed is that performance can vary wildly between apps on the same connection. 5G alone won't do anything significant if there's a bottleneck after the data reaches the device.
This is the real issue with 5G hype - for the most part it's an incremental change where it doesn't open up new use cases on the side of the consumer that don't already exist. There's improvements and some advantages, but they're not the world-changing type that people trying desperately to push it are claiming.
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I don't know about you, but I have never considered Jim Carrey to be particularly "sexy-adjacent".
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I'm currently sitting in a wealthy neighborhood north of Ft. Meyers. T-Mobile says two bars of 5G. Here are my stats: 170ms, 26.9 down and 0.53(!) up. Transformative my ass. I'd settle for adequate.
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The USA imply does not have the spectrum across networks to make 5g better than a good 4g signal 5g is not be necessary to watch hdtv on a laptop or tablet but than many areas hardly have a good 4g signal is it any surprise than 5g provides little benefit to consumers . Networks need to have a wide range of spectrum to provide fast 5g a long range from the cell tower which is simply not avaidable in America. Making ads with a few famous celebs won't change peoples opinion.
Also 5g uses up battery power faster than 4g.
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Why 5G?
Does anyone really watch enough video on their phone to make 5G worth it? That is the only reason for a high bandwidth connection. I can't think of another.
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