3.5 GHz is absolutely in use for 5G. It is actually one of the features of 5G which allows it to achieve greater bandwidth (at the cost of less range, so you’d need more towers and rural areas get fscked).
It is however not in use in The Netherlands because of satellite ground station in Burum nickname It Grutte Ear.
See:
This means its illegal to operate 3.5 GHz in half of The Netherlands: north, north/east, east, including a part of de Randstad (mostly a large part of Amsterdam, the other 3 are liberated from the grasp of Burum).
There are plans to move it to a different country (officially, secret, unofficially I heard Greece but it has to be build first and requires a permit etc etc).
Internationally, 3.5 GHz is used almost everywhere for 5G, and seems more worth it. So in The Netherlands you got only the 700 MHz for 5G. Which is great for coverage (though that was already good) but not for throughput/bandwidth.
26 GHz (mmWave) is not yet used for 5G anywhere, AFAICT. And its very short range.
The Dutch 3.5 GHz auction would’ve taken place in September 2021 but it was postponed because of the lawsuit. There’s a workgroup developed for the issue, but it has not been assembled yet. ETA October 2021.
Nevermind the fact Vodafone NL uses DSS (which Vodafone’s Global CEO called fake 5G ) and that smartphones report they are using 5G when they actually don’t.
So TL;DR 5G is useless in The Netherlands. Although the Dutch providers try to market it as useful, it isn’t. For now. And its gonna stay that way in 2022.
I actually assumed you were residing in The Netherlands. Surely in other countries your point makes more sense (and also for people who travel a lot in The Netherlands but then I’d say get a better car )
Yes I note that 3.5Ghz doesn’t seem to be used in the UK
Not sure how a better car would help, especially if I want to use a bike. I understand the Netherlands may be quite flat, am I getting lost in the hills and valleys of this island UK?
Thanks for the link. Your source is from August 2021 and covers the auction has concluded (it was postponed in NL), and it links to 5G UK auction: Everything you need to know which tells exactly which frequencies and how much MHz of the spectrum has been auctioned to whom.
Although a map of cell towers (usually provider has it, otherwise third party) is also useful to figure which provider is best for your use-case (which includes say home/work, commute, common travel locations).
Since Fairphone has a high adoption rate (or customer base) in Germany, I’m also interested how 5G is coming along over there.
The 3.5GHz (5G) roll-out is expected to be completed in Germany by 2025. The 3.5GHz 5G network will then cover 43 percent of the German population, up from 42 percent in 2023. However, only seven percent of the geographical area in Germany will be covered in 2025.
So within a year, 42% of German population can use 3.5 GHz 5G, but that’s not country-wide at all. It only covers 7% of the country ie. the major cities. If we assume FP4 is released in September 2021, and you can use it for 5 years (till Sept 2026), then for Germans you won’t be able to use FP4 with 3.5 GHz 5G if you live/work/travel outside of the major cities.
We can meanwhile hope 4G rollout is going to be better?
Btw, strangely if you zoom some highways seem to have 5G coverage…
This means that, besides federal motorways and ICE lines, 5G connectivity with
the required level of quality is to be made available at
least also on federal highways and regional roads, railway
lines and major waterways.
Typical use cases for 5G are vehicle2x communication and (connected with this) autonomous driving. Might be that this was a wish of the automobile industry…
Similar here in parts of the UK. I imagine the networks find it far easier getting authorisation from public (road) organisations than private lands.
As most 5G is a higher frequency than 4G it will require more masts, given it’s shorter range, so many new locations will have to be arranged on private property in cities.
On the possible lack of audio jack, there indeed are USB-to-audio solutions, like that one in France.
They are very cheap in all senses of the word, and to me (only) that means the phone maker has just subcontracted the audio generation part to an unknown supplier that will be just good for talking, but never for music. -but inded one may want precisely that.
I for one will never change my Bang & Olufsen wired headphones for anything that’d demand bluetooth or the device above. (Moreover, to me it’s almost shocking to require yet another battery in the helmet, which one has to charge separately, and that won’t be replaceable.)
Yes, and bad enough putting the phone radio to my head occasionally let alone 2.4GHz bluetooth in both ears. Looks like a forward step for technology but a backward one for common decency.
Technically the bluetooth is mostly receiving but that doesn’t really mitigate the issue.
Hello all,
This morning I got an email just confirming TheDeckie post above : official announcement on Sept. 30, nothing more.
Now in my peculiar situation it happens I’m leaving my job just the day before, and I’ll leave my company phone at the same time.
So I need a replacement (rather than just an order) on October 1st. I’m considering either some intermediate step with whatever old thing, or ordering ‘just’ a Fairphone 3+.
But I understood somewhere above there may not be an earphone plug, but I can’t track the actual source.
→ any news on this specific area?
Thank you!
H.
the missing headphone Jack is just a thought as we can’t see one on the view pictures we have. So no official knowledge jet.
I would go for a 'n interim device to be flexible.
Pro on FP 4 would be the 5G which is more future proof than the FP3+.
And as most people tent to have an old device in a draw, you wouldn’t loose anything by waiting.
) and that smartphones report they are using 5G when they actually don’t.
)
