What am I going to HAVE TO change with 5G?

[samintx]

At my age I don’t want to shift, change, upgrade. Happy with my OS and computers and older software. What am I going to be forced to change or upgrade?

[Tiangou]

Maybe nothing at all.

5G is nowhere near omnipresent and 5G-capable phones will be dropping back to 4G LTE nearly all the time unless you're lucky enough to be within eyesight of a 5G cell tower or repeater. This will happen automatically.

When you replace your phone in the ordinary course, you're eventually going to end up with a 5G-capable phone. When you have access to a 5G network, it might be faster at web-browsing or allow for faster framerates with certain types of online-games.

5G does suck more power. You might consider turning off 5G and to use 4G LTE to save battery.

4G hotspots are already pretty popular as an alternative to cable/DSL. (I wouldn't trade FiOS for 4G.) Since 5G is potentially faster than 4G, you may see more people replacing their cable/DSL Internet service with hotspots.

[cbelt3]

"5G" only exists in city centers right now, and only a few cities. They kept 3G alive for 20 years. I expect 4G will stay alive as long.

Also some 5G has issues getting through walls.

my city supposedly went to "5G'... I see no difference in my 5G capable iPhone 13Pro on Verizon.

[samintx]

TV news is touting 5G problems shutting down lower G services. Many will be questioning like me.

cbelt3 wrote:
"5G" only exists in city centers right now, and only a few cities. They kept 3G alive for 20 years. I expect 4G will stay alive as long.

Also some 5G has issues getting through walls.

my city supposedly went to "5G'... I see no difference in my 5G capable iPhone 13Pro on Verizon.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

I am not an iPhone expert but it looks like any phone not new enough to support LTE will soon be dead. Any iPhone/iPad with primary EV-DO/EDGE connectivity will lose reception.

First models with LTE were:
iPhone 5
iPad 4

[GGD]

The one problem that 5G might cause for you is a side effect, and that's the shutting down of 3G networks to make room for 5G. If you have any older cellular devices they may not work anymore.

For iPhones, most carriers these days require an iPhone 6s or newer in order to be activated on their network.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Many vehicles built before the 2016 model year will lose built in accident notification/towing/roadside assistance/etc. This is assuming the manufacturer doesn't have an upgrade module. Mine doesn't the last I heard. They would rather you buy a new car than deal with that old piece of crap that's out of warranty.

[dk62]

Regarding coverage, I have to say I have it in most areas where I spend time, which are mainly suburban Northern and Western New Jersey, Bucks County PA, and New Haven.

[vicrock]

I live in a very small, rural town, and we have 5G. I never used to have reception at my house, but now have one bar

[Don C]

ATT put a 5G box on a pole 100 yards away, but the solid brick walls of this old house will pretty much reduce any chance of using it. But I was not planning to change to ATT anyway.

Would love to have a little 5G detector to see if the service gets into the house, but mostly for curiosity sake. Would want to borrow the detector because once I know, I don't need to use it again.